A year in the life
by Selphy.Westmile
Summary: With her high school years having come to a close, what path for the future has Miho decided? There is some language and juvenile behavior depicted within.
1. Chapter 1

Miho set the stack of papers she was holding down on the table in front of her and sighed. She had three days to decide which university offer she would accept and was lost. All the universities had great academic programs, fantastic locations, and most importantly, strong sensha-do teams. But the issue was Miho wasn't completely sure she WANTED to go to university. Maybe she'd follow her sister into the JSDF Officer Training Program. Perhaps she'd move back home and mend what fences still exist between herself and her mother and inherit the Nishizumi style.

"Ugh… I can't think of this anymore today." Miho stood and, with a glance backwards at her table, and the letters scattered on it, and left her apartment. _Maybe a walk will help clear my mind._ As she walked through the carrier town, she thought of each option in turn, weighing and judging the pros and cons of each.

Before long Miho's thoughts had changed to thinking of her last year of high school. After the challenging battle with the University team, life at Oorai had continued on. Some aspects changed, like a new student council, but in some ways it stayed the same. _Of course,_ Miho mused _, the new student council is definately less… involved with the Sensha-Do team._ With The old council having graduated to university, Miho was given complete control over the Sensha-Do team, and with it new members and responsibilities. She had made new friends, lost friends, and while Oorai finished as Runner Up in the

Also during this time Miho had reconnected with her mother and had made progress with coming to terms with the differences in Sensha-Do styles that existed. It did help that Miho had proven her strength at planning and executing a battle plan, and that Maho had petitioned that Miho could bring new ideas and practices to Sensha-Do as a whole.

Looking up, Miho noted that while lost in her thoughts, the walk had brought her back around to her apartment block. With a notable disinterest, Miho climbed the stairs to her floor and went into her apartment. She didn't even get fifteen paces in when her doorbell chimed.

"Coming!" Miho wondered who was at her door. Could it be Saori? Highly doubtful; Saori always called or texted before coming over, and a quick check of her phone indicated that she didn't miss a single call or text. Stepping up to her door, she was surprised to see a group of people standing outside through the peephole. None of them looked threatening, so Miho slowly opened the door.

"Good day." Miho stated, with a hint of suspicion.

"Nishizumi Miho, I presume?" Asked a man standing to the left of the group. Miho looked at him and nodded.

The group was comprised of two men, most likely in their mid-forties, and two women, one who appeared to be about the same age and one who was only a few years older than Miho herself.

"Perfect, perfect. My name is Charles Salt, and I represent the World Tankery League. We were hoping you could spare a few minutes?"

Miho didn't answer for a few long seconds, then simply said "Certainly."

As her apartment was not large enough to hold all present (not that she was overly willing to let them in anyways), and after a quick discussion to that effect, Miho lead the group to a local cafe. Once they were seated, Mr. Salt pulled a folder out of his briefcase and set it on the table and looked at Miho again.

"I'm sure you're curious as to what business the World Tankery League has with you. Well, I'll cut straight to the chase as it's quite simple. We came here to advise you that we are very interested in having you join the league. There was a draft held a few days ago and your name was called."

Miho could only stare at the man and say "This is the first I've heard of this."

The other man present spoke up. "Of course. The letter informing you of the draft, and your subsequent drafting was sent to what we thought was your residence, which we just found out recently is incorrect. I'm Roger English, by the way. Your league assigned agent. Once we found out that you had not returned to Kuromorimine, it became somewhat of a mess, and we thought it would best to inform you in person. We had assumed you would return to your home once the school year was finished. Obviously we were wrong."

Miho slowly nodded her head. Most of her friends had returned to the mainland where their families resided after graduation. Those who had family on the Zuikaku itself had moved on to their respective universities. Well, most of them.

"Understandable," Miho started slowly, "but what do you mean by 'My name was called?'" Miho had heard of the World Tankery League, but hadn't really paid it any attention.

"Meaning, a team in the league selected you to join their team. They _chose_ you, over of a lot of other women, to be the future of their team. Of course, there is no legal obligation for you to join, but that's why we are here: to inform you of your draft status and convince you to join."

Miho looked back at Mr. Salt. "And your role with the league is…"

"Vice President of Player Operations. Basically I make sure contracts are legal, assist the player's association with their issues, and a bunch of other stuff to help the sport and league grow and stay strong."

"Ah."

The older woman extended her hand to Miho. "I'm Jessica Flint. I'm the Manager of the team that selected you. The other young lady here is Mari Huber, the team captain. She doesn't speak much Japanese though."

Miho shoot the woman's hand, still somewhat confused as to everything happening. When she shook Mari's hand, she heard the other young woman say 'Hello' in very broken Japanese. Her accent sounded German to Miho.

"Anyways, I'd like for you to join our team." Ms. Flint leaned forwards and rested her elbows on the table. "We're rebuilding our team this year and we need good crews. Looking at who we drafted this year and last year, I think we're going to have a fantastic team in the next few, and..." Miho found that as the woman talked about the team, she became more interested in what the woman was saying.

"... besides which, it's going to be a new challenge for you. A lot of differences, and a lot of cultures to understand and learn about."

"That sounds interesting! Where is this team located? What ship is it on?"

Ms. Flint grinned and leaned back in her chair. "No ships, the teams in this league are land based."

Mr. Salt spoke up "There are twenty-four teams in the league, divided into two separate conferences: Atlantic and Pacific, meaning that there are twelve teams on the Atlantic ocean and twelve on the Pacific. Land based, with transport to get between them. A lot of the match grounds are in neutral locations, but each team also has a personal training ground that can be used for matches as well."

Miho was becoming more and more interested in the league, but still had no idea where this team was located or anything about the league itself. When she asked, all the others looked at each other first.

"Well…" Mr. English paused here for a few seconds, then continued "The team that drafted you is in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It's in Canada. Atlantic coast." He pulled a sheet of paper with a map printed on it, with Halifax highlighted in red, and Oorai highlighted in blue. A number was printed at the bottom of the map. 10,683km. Miho could only stare at the number. It was halfway around the earth!

"Wow…" was all Miho could think.

"We know it's quite a distance away, but…"

Miho slumped in her chair. Between trying to select a university, go back to the Nishizumi school, join the Officer Training program, and now this, she was exhausted.

"Either way, we'd like for you to review these documents. Maybe this will help you decide." Mr Salt pushed his folder over to her. Inside was what appeared to be a rules booklet, some other information regarding the league, plus some assorted odds and ends about Halifax, Canada, and some print outs. "If you can, can you look these over tonight and let us know by tomorrow?"

Miho very slowly closed the folder. Stapled to the cover were three business cards: Mr. Salt, Me. English, and Ms. Flint.

Miho stood, and while bowing, stated "I will."

The other four stood, and after shaking hands, left. Miho slowly sat back down in her seat and looked at the folder again. Deciding that she would rather read it's contents in her apartment, she stood, picked up the folder, and headed home.


	2. Chapter 22222222

_In regards to the conduct of all participants in the World Tankery League, there are a number of guidelines that are to be adhered to at…_

Miho looked up from the rulebook in her hand and pinched the bridge of her nose. She thought that this wouldn't be so difficult, and had decided to read the rulebook from front to back; this had turned out to be a mistake. The first four chapters were rules on personal conduct and presentation when conducting official WTL business.

She set the rule book face down and took a sip of her tea. Content that she was on the last page for this chapter, she picked the book back up and decided to skip to a section that was marked by a stick on tab with a note reading 'Match Rules'. As she read on, her interest rose.

 _ **RULES OF COMPOSITION**_

 _Each team in the World Tankery League is obligated to follow the below force organization tables in order to promote parity within the league. Please note that special events may deviate from the provided tables and regulations. A document will be provided to each team in the event that changes will be made to the tables._

 _5.1 - Restrictions of permissible vehicles_

 _i) All vehicles (herein referred to as 'Tanks') will be limited to the weight of 70t (70 tonnes, 68.8 long tonnes)_

 _ii) All Tanks must be of design vintage no later than 1965._

 _iii) Tanks may not be equipped with Smoothbore cannons. Should a vehicle not be able to equip a Rifled barrel of the designing nation's, an equivalent may be used._

Miho pondered this. While high school Sensha-Do had not allowed any tank designed after the Second World War be used, the WTL had increased the technology threshold to early-mid Cold war levels. Miho looked through the folder and found the team's listed equipment.

35 - Leopard 1 MBT

Main Gun: 105 mm Royal Ordnance L7A3

Secondary: 2 × 7.62 mm MG3

Powerplant: 819hp

Top Speed: 65 km/h

15 - Spähpanzer Luchs

Main Gun: 20 mm Rheinmetall MK 20 Rh 202

Secondary: 7.62 mm MG3

Powerplant: 390hp

Top Speed: 90 km/h

 _Spähpanzer Luchs? What tank is that?_ Miho pulled her laptop closer and a few seconds later had her answer. Instead of what she expected to be a tank in the traditional sense was an 8-wheeled fighting vehicle. Miho quickly read the next section of the rulebook

 _xii) All AFV (Armoured Fighting Vehicles) are to follow the regulations for Tanks with the exception of weight where they are limited to 35t (35 tonnes, 34.5 long tonnes)_

Intrigued, Miho kept reading.

At about 6 that evening Miho had read the complete rulebook and while preparing her dinner thought about the WTL's rules.

Tanks were more modern

Matches were conducted as 20 vehicles per team

AFVs were permissable

Each team was allowed two aerial spotters that were not equipped for combat

Matches were pure elimination and had a hard time limit of 8 hours

The more she thought of the rules and vehicles the Halifax team was using the more she thought of how she could execute a plan. Her reading of the Leopard 1's statistics led her to think that the WTL matches were fast moving battles that required quick thinking and nonlinear planning.

Miho picked up her meal and took it to her table and sat down. A thought struck her as she took her first bite, and using the time she was eating Miho did a search on the internet for the WTL Halifax team. She spent the next fifteen minutes reading the team history. _An accomplished team currently rebuilding after a number of members retired or were traded on,_ Miho read, _known for quick tempo changes and map coverages_.

Miho next clicked on the history of the WTL and after five minutes was completely enthralled at what she was reading, her dinner forgotten in front of her.

 _Starting in 1985 the Tokyo team, led by captain Nishizumi Shiho, began a championship streak of nine seasons, becoming the premier team in the league and losing only 6 matches in 9 years in the regular season. The 1994-1995 season started much as similarly, however Nishizumi had opted to retire mere weeks into the season. The Tokyo team has never again accomplished a league championship, and no team since has ever come close to accomplishing this incredible feat of martial prowess._

Miho stared at the dates. Her mother had retired in 1994. Maho was born in 1994. Her mind flashed back to when she was much younger. Her mother had always kept a display of trophies that Miho couldn't read as they were in English, and when asked about them Shiho had always stated that these were the glory of the Nishizumi style of Sensha-Do. All the parts now fell into place. Those where WTL trophies! Her mother had been a decorated champion in the WTL.

Miho kept reading the history of the league and to the side of the webpage saw a link that read '2016 WTL Commander Draft'. Miho put two and two together and realised that this was the draft that Mr. Salt had mentioned earlier. Curious, Miho clicked the link and started to read the list of draft selections.

She had quickly found her name:

9 - HALIFAX - NISHIZUMI, MIHO - OARAI (JPN)

The WTL draft was created to allow teams that are not able to compete effectively obtain better commanders. While it seemed to Miho at first to be a terrible concept, she thought on it a bit and it makes sense. If a team was to finish in last place, they would receive the first pick in the draft, and the pick ownership continued, until the final 24th pick which was awarded to the league champion. While it may appear to award bad teams, the intention was to create parity in the league by helping less competitive teams become competitive by giving them a better chance at better new commanders. Over time, this would balance out with the eventual turn over every team faces in time. While called the Commander draft, not all chosen become commanders of a tank. A number become other crew in the tanks, and many a great radio operator or gunner on great teams were commanders in school and in lesser leagues. Teams could also trade draft picks for other draft picks, specific crew members, and in a few special cases, entire crews.

Though, as Miho had noted, the draft also has created problems, as some teams tried to build a roster entirely in the draft and failed. Not because of skill, but money. Each team in the league has a salary cap to discourage teams significantly outbidding others for unsigned was also parity; if each team in the league was restricted to spending the same amount of money on it's roster, than each team had a fair chance. This was the outcome of the dynasty her mother had been part of; the Tokyo team was the richest in the league, and spent significant amounts of money on it's crews. The numbers published put the Tokyo roster at about 87 million US dollars, when the next closest, Los Angeles, had only spent a (comparatively) paltry sum of 38 million US dollars.

This meant that she was the 9th overall selection meaning, in theory, the 9th best commander available. She looked the list over again and saw that people were taken from countries such as Canada, the US, Germany, the UK and Russia. Miho started, and her eyes jumped back to a name to make sure she read it right. Not only that name, but the two names below it as well.

12 - HALIFAX (FROM TOKYO) - ITSUMI, ERIKA - KUROMORIMINE (JPN)

13 - VANCOUVER - MATSUMOTO, RIKO - OARAI (JPN)

14 - LORIENT - KINUYO, NISHI - CHI-HA-TAN (JPN)

 _Wait… this means that Erika was drafted by Halifax as well? And Erwin was drafted by a team, as well as Nishi?_ Miho stared at the list. In some strange moment of curiosity, Miho went back to Halifax's website and selected it's roster. There listed were all of the teams but she didn't see her or Erika's name, but two names did stand out.

YAMAGUCHI, Kei (JPN) - CMDR, L1-14

IKEDA-BURNS, Naomi (JPN) - GUNNER, L1-14

Those names… that was Kei and Naomi from Saunders! Miho's biggest fears with joining this league were that she'd be alone… but with Kay, Naomi, and Erika, there would be people she knows there. Even her mother…

That thought stopped Miho cold. Her mother. What would her mother think? Would she be happy, or would she think her own name would be sullied by Miho? While they had made strides to reconcile their differences, they still didn't see eye to eye. Would this start another fight? Miho thought for a few moments, then pulled out her phone and dialed a number that was not often used.

"..."

"Yes, Miho?"

"Mother… I learned something today, and I'm not sure what to do about it."

"... I see."

"Well… I… I was drafted by the World Tankery League."

"Oh? And what do you wish of me?"

"What would you do? Should I accept this? I'm not..."

"Miho. Once you pass this opportunity up, you can never gain it back. I am certain you researched this and learned that I was once in the league."

"Yes."

"You need not to worry of my thoughts. Indeed, the league has changed since my time. In fact, I believe that your style of Sensha-Do is more suited to it than the Nishizumi school."

"..."

"Besides, you will have a place here should you need it. You've proven this many a time."

"Thank you, Mother."

"Oh, Miho? What team?"

"Halifax."

"Hmm. A good team. Pack a sweater. Halifax is cold."

"Yes, I will."

Less than five minutes later, Miho was on the phone again, this time to Ms. Flint.

"Oh? What prompted this call?"

"I accept."

"Oh? That's great! We'll meet again tomorrow. I'll be sure to provide Roger with your contract details again, though the man is quite good at keeping these things organized. You'll see a copy in the back of that folder in a duotang."

After a few more minutes, the call ended and Miho pulled the final document out of the folder. She read through it quickly. It appeared to be a standard agreement that she wouldn't do anything against the regulations, that the contract was legally binding. Also listed were performance expectations and team expectations. She did however do a double take at the table on page four.

SALARY (USD PRORATED):

YR1 - 74,000, 0 Bonus

YR2 - 80,000, 10,000 Victory (10)

YR3 - 84,000, 14,000 Victory (15), 5,000 MVP, 10,000 Play-Off Seeded

Miho stared at these numbers. _74,000 US Dollars is...8 MILLION YEN?_ Miho sat down on her bed in a state of shock. _May we live in interesting times._

 **AN:**

 **I know that some may not understand the draft concept as that is a very North American concept. Trust me, we don't understand relegation and promotion over here that well.**

 **Some more astute may notice that I've loosely based this on the NHL system (Go Devils!)**

 **for the draft (minus that stupid lottery) and for a salary cap. I want the teams to be fairly even. Of course, some are more even than others…**


	3. Meet the Press!

Miho stepped out of the airport and looked around, sweat already forming on her forehead, the afternoon sun beating down on her like an oven. _And they said Canada was cold!_ Taking off the sweatshirt she was wearing and stuffing it into her backpack, she pulled out her cell phone and checked the local weather.

 _Sunny with cloudy periods, rain moving in overnight, expect 2-4mm. Temperature is 28 with a humidex of 35._

"Oh my god, why is it so hot?" complained her companion. Miho turned to see that Erika had also removed her sweater and was carrying it over her arm.

"So much for it being cold." Miho grumbled. She wondered for a quick second if her mother had played a trick on her, then remembered that Canada is known for weather extremes. Very hot and humid summers, cold and dry winters.

"Any idea what we're looking for, Miho?" Erika set her bag down on the curb of the loading zone and looked around. Miho did the same and just as she straightened up, she saw their team manager, Jessica Flint, waving at her from a car parked a few feet away. With matching sighs, Miho and Erika picked up their luggage and made their way over to the car.

"Good to see you, ladies!" Jessica picked up their luggage and put it in the trunk of her car. "Welcome to Canada! Well, I guess you stopped in Toronto on the way. Welcome anyways." Looking around, Miho caught sight of nothing but the airport terminal behind her and a parking lot in front of her. Beyond that was nothing but trees. Looking at Erika, she saw that Erika had noticed the same thing.

"There's nothing but wilderness here."

Jessica laughed as she directed them into the back seat of the car.

"Well… we're still about 45 minutes outside of Halifax itself. Trust me girls, Canada is very different from Japan. We have space. A lot of it."

As they drove, Miho and Erika looked out the windows of the car and saw only trees. Occasionally, they'd drive past a lake, or a small group of houses, but mostly nothing but trees.

"So, how was the flight?"

"Long." Erika stated simply. "I think we slept most of the way over. We didn't really wake up until we were getting ready to land at Toronto, so we didn't really see anything exciting."

"Not as exciting as the last few months, anyways?" Jessica laughed.

* * *

In the three months since Miho had signed her contract with the Halifax WTL team she had been busy. First was the package that came in the mail containing her welcome information, including her rooming, board, travel arrangements, and a large number of booklets about Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Canada and it's attractions.

Second was her visa application for Canada. From filling out forms, to obtaining personal documents, and finally waiting for the visa itself, this had taken almost 8 weeks. At first she thought that was a great turnover until her agent told her that the WTL, and all sporting organizations, had ways to speed the process up, then told her that if this was a normal working visa, it would take months.

The third package contained medical, legal, and educational forms and tests for the WTL itself. The physical was fine as she only needed to have her doctor perform the physical, and she passed with no issues. The educational form was also straightforward, but took some time to get the Oorai administrators to sign off on it. The legal form, on the other hand, was rather intriguing. It required her to provide basics, such as marital status, parental marital status and the like, but also included criminal and legal screening. She had meant to ask about this with her agent, but had completely forgotten until the flight over.

Add on top of all this the interviews she had performed with various news and sporting groups, explaining her choices to all the universities that offered her a position, and moving out of her apartment, she had little time to herself over the summer break. The only time she had seen her friends was at her going away party Hana had thrown her the day before leaving. And quite the party is was. There was a tonne of food, good music, and a lot of catching up to do as everyone had gone home for the summer. They were all excited for Miho, and when Erwin showed up, were just as excited for.

Except, Miho thought, there was a conspicuous absence that bothered her a lot. Saori hadn't showed up, and according to Hana and Mako, she had never answered any texts or phone calls over the summer break, which was unusual. While upset and saddened that she didn't speak with one of her best friends (who seemed to be ignoring everyone), Miho still enjoyed herself. The party lasted late into the night, and at about three in the morning everyone was tired and decided to call it a wrap.

After the majority of guests left, Miho had spoken to Hana privately in an unused room of Hana's family estate. The conversation lasted for only a few moments, but both Miho and Hana left the room wiping their eyes and, after another goodbye, got into the cab that was waiting to take her to the airport. Miho would sleep on the plane.

* * *

As the trio talked, Miho noticed that what was once nothing but trees along the highway was giving way to malls and businesses. Not long after the change, the group crossed a bridge across a large harbour. Once on the other side, Miho found herself travelling in the suburbs.

"Welcome to Halifax."

"That's a lot of houses. And they all have large yards!" Miho exclaimed. "Is this the rich part of town?"

"Nope. These are just normal family houses. Don't forget, space isn't a premium in Canada like it is in Japan. Houses are cheap in comparison."

"Where are we going, anyways?" Erika was still looking out the window, sitting like an excited child.

"We are going to a press conference for all your new teammates."

Miho whipped her head over to look at Jessica, instantly nervous. She was not expecting to have to do any interviews or press work this soon! She JUST got here!

"Don't worry about it," Jessica stated, "You'll be fine. Besides you two, there's a few more people who were traded here over the summer. Most of them will be fielding the questions. Trust me, you're fine."

As Miho sat back in her seat, Jessica pulled up to a fenced-off road behind a large building, and after a few seconds of conversation with what appeared to be a security guard, was waved through the gate. As she was parking, Jessica handed 2 passes with their names and pictures on them.

"These are your access passes. Don't lose them; they're also used at the team facility. As well, I'd recommend going to the washroom and trying to freshen up a bit. I know this seems last minute… mostly because we forgot to tell you this was happening."

As they got out of the car Miho looked back and as if reading her mind, Jessica continued. "Leave your luggage. One of the team assistants will take it to your flat. Good thing you girls know each other or the rooming would have been interesting for the both of you." Luckily, Miho thought, she had been roommates with Erika when she was at Kuromorimine, and they got along great outside of Sensha-Do.

"So when you go in, the washroom is on the right hand side. Don't worry about the shoes, we don't follow the cleanliness thing you guys do in Japan. Once you're done, this guy" she patted a man wearing a jacket with the team logo on it reading a clipboard "will get you to where you need to be. This is Troy by the way, he's one of the team assistants." Troy waived, said "Yah." and went back to his clipboard. "I have to go and start the conference, so I'll see you out there." And with that being said, Jessica walked around the corner and was gone.

* * *

Miho looked at herself in the mirror, and in the corner of her eye caught Erika doing the same. _This will have to do_ she thought to herself and left the washroom. Outside she turned and walked over to Troy, who was still looking at his clipboard. She heard the washroom door open and close and Erika appeared at her side.

"All ready?" Troy asked, and seeing both girls nod, turned and walked up the same hallway that Jessica had disappeared down a few minutes earlier. He stopped at a nondescript door and opened it, gesturing for both girls to go inside.

Miho froze. She was nowhere near ready to face a crowd of reporters. Erika however pushed on ahead and paused at the door.

"Miho, it's a room with 5 people in it." Erika deadpanned.

"Right. You'll wait here for now and be called on as a group to go into the presser." Troy explained. "The ladies in here are your teammates."

Miho laughed nervously then entered the room. Inside was Erika and 5 other women who all appeared older than her. To her left as she entered was a group of three, two women with short blonde hair and one with shoulder length brown curls. On the other side of the room was a tall dark skinned woman speaking to very short woman wearing a hat.

One of the blond women to her left looked up at her and Erika and stated in English not much better than her own "You two the rookies, ya?" Miho noded while Erika replied yes.

"Verr good. I'm Linnea Olsson." The woman held out her hand and after a few moments Miho realized the intent and shook it. "Other here is Freja Lindgren." The other blonde also shook Miho's and Erika's hand. The brunette excitedly stepped forwards and hugged Miho, much to her surprise.

"I'm Sara Cartier! So nice to meet you!" once she let go of Miho she moved sideways and hugged Erika, causing the younger woman to squeak.

Miho started to introduce herself but was cut off by the dark-skinned woman who, along with the hatted woman, had walked across the room.

"You're Miho Nishizumi and Erika Itsumi. You're quite well known." she stated.

"Really?"

"Ah right. You don't know this but the last two years of the Japanese High School Tankery championships have been quite popular. Especially last year. The unpredictable Oorai team vs. the iron-willed Kuromo.. Niro… morimo… Kuro team. Very interesting matches."

Erika smirked. While the woman tried, the butchering of Kuromorimine was quite amusing.

"I'm Shelby Morneau. This midget is Evangeline De Costa. She doesn't English well."

The short woman with the hat puffed her cheeks out like a small child. "Why do you says dees tings? I can speak Anglais well nuff!" While she appeared angry, her eyes were glittering with amusement.

Looking around, she took a better look at her new teammates. Linnea and Freja were both tall and thin, with and had amazingly clear skin and near flawless, youthful faces. Matched with their light hair, made them look almost ethereal. Sara looked like every westerner she saw on TV: curly brown hair, freckles, glasses. and a fit but not overly skinny body. She was also the same height as Miho, but shorter than Erika. Shelby was a very fit and… developed body. Add to that her size and her skin tone, she was outright beautiful. Evangeline was a contrast. Porcelain skin, red hair (from what Miho could see under her hat) and short stature, the woman looked more like a doll than a person.

Miho smiled. _They don't seem like bad people, and are quite friendly_. With a bow, Miho exclaimed "I am in your care!" and Erika bowed mere milliseconds after her.

Evangeline looked like she was about to say something but Troy stepped into the room and with a quick glance around started speaking. "OK, we're going to head into the conference in about 60 seconds. As well please turn off your phones. I need you all in this order: Shelby, Evangeline, Miho, Erika, Linnea, Sara, Freja. Please get ready so that we can get this over with. I'm hungry." The last of his instructions caused a bout of laughter from the older women. Miho and Erika simply nodded, afraid to speak.

After what seemed like an eternity but no time at all Troy opened the other door in the room and motioned the women forwards.

As she left the room, Miho found herself walking down a dimly lit hallway, and after a walk up a short flight of stairs, walked out onto a stage set up with a long table at the front of the stage, and to her left, with a number of empty chairs behind it, each position set up with a microphone. Jessica was standing in front of one of the chairs and clapping, along with the team captain she had met a few months ago. Also standing with this group was a man that Miho did not recognize; she was certain that she would learn this man's identity before long. Looking past the front of the stage she saw a large crowd of reporters applauding as well. On the floor in front of the stage photographers were taking more pictures than she could count, the flashes seemingly melting into one continuous bright light. She looked down at the table and noted that beside each microphone was a bottle of water, a placard with names on them, and a team hat. Finding her chair, she stood behind it and looked down at the reporters.

While nervous as hell before walking out, Miho found that she felt fine. Other than a bit of nervousness, she wasn't the panicking blob she expected herself to be. Instead, a smile was forming on her face that she was sure looked corny, but genuine. She caught movement to her right and glanced over. Evangeline and Shelby were putting the team hats on and making movements to sit down. Miho decided to do the same and after a few moments, all at the table were seated.

Silence descended on the room, and with this the camera flashes slowed to an almost non-existent occurrence.

"With this we would like to introduce the newest members of our organization." Jessica spoke. Miho noted that her speaking style was much more professional than it had been in the car and when walking in. "Shelby Morneau and Evangeline De Costa were acquired in a trade with Hamberg. Linnea Olsson, Sara Cartier, and Reja Lindgren were acquired through free agency. Miho Nishizumi and Erika Itsumi were our latest first round draft picks. Each brings a unique perspective and skillset to our organization. Our expectation that with this group of new arrivals, along with our existing roster, will elevate Halifax back to it's rightful place in the league. With this being said, we will now open the floor for questions. Please raise your hand and we will provide you with a microphone. Be sure to state your name and the organization you are with."

Miho watched as a large number of reporters raised their hands. As the first reporter was picked out, Miho crossed her fingers behind her placard, hoping the question wasn't for her.

"Chris Ryder, Associated Press. Evangeline and Shelby, your thoughts on being traded so soon after winning the league championship?"

Miho blinked. _Their team got rid of two people who helped them win? What is going on?_

"Yeah," Shelby said, leaning forwards to speak into her microphone, "it was a shock, but in this league, you have to expect these things. It was well known that the team was up against the cap, and had to shed some salary. It's a business. I'm thankful for the opportunity that I was given in Hamberg, and am really excited to be joining this team to help them win."

"Indeed. I was also in a shock, but I'm happy to be part of this team." Evangeline added after a few seconds.

A few more hands shot up in the crowd, and some went down. The next reporter who was pointed out stood.

"Aleks Burmistrov, Monthly Armour magazine. Sara, you're a Canadian, and a very well known Tankery figure in Canada. Did that factor into your decision to sign with Halifax?"

"Without a doubt. Every athlete wants to play for their home team. That's not to say that being with Busan was negative, but being able to play for a Canadian team means a lot to me and my family."

And back and forth these questions went. Some questions were seemingly useless information (What plans do you have after this contract? Did this player from your national team influence your choice? Do you have any regrets from this happening last year?) and then one question finally was directed at Miho and Erika.

"Amanda Logan, CTV News. Miho and Erika, you have competed together on the same team, and against each other in your high school league in Japan, both times as the finalists. What about each other do you think will make you work together so well?"

Miho pulled a blank, and a quick sideways glance and saw that Erika was in the same boat. Miho leaned forward to her mic and offered the only thing she could think of.

"We both learned and practiced same style until last two years, so there is that closeness. I may be more… unpredictable… Erika is very calm collected leader. Having that on the same team open up an option."

 _Not exactly eloquent. But I think it works._ Miho thought. She knew her English wasn't the best, but she hoped that made sense. Erika simply said "I agree. We have a good know of how we think against each other. That is an asset."

Sitting back in her chair, Miho hoped that she didn't make herself sound like an idiot.

* * *

After the press conference, it took almost two hours to leave the venue. After posing with Erika for photos, performing a few small interviews, and (much to her surprise) signing a number of autographs, Miho was qutie exhausted. She had sat in the back seat of one of the team's vans which was taking her, Erika, Shelby, and Evangeline to their flats. She was happy to learn that Shelby and Evangeline were her neighbours, which meant that travelling to and from practice and meetings would be easier, and that herself and Erika would have friendly faces to talk to on off days.

The ride to her new home was quite enjoyable. She learned that Shelby was from the UK and had been in tankery since she was 7 years old, and that Evangeline was Belgian and not French and had picked up tankery in first cycle of secondary. The two older women had kept her and Erika entertained with stories of their first years in the league and all the hijinks that occur with the League, from practical jokes when travelling to funny and strange superstitions that some members develop. Miho and Erika were obligated (much to Erika's chagrin) to explain Oorai's tactic of defeating the Maus, which made Shelby roar with laughter and Evangeline (who let the girls know to call her Eva) shaking her head in wonder.

"Dat is insane. Whooz idea was dat?" Eva had asked, hands raised in a gesture of stupefied disbelief.

Miho raised her hand. "Mine. It was the only thing I could think of." Shelby just roared louder, and Erika hung her head and shook it.

In what seemed like no time at all (but had been 45 minutes of city driving) the van pulled up to a 10-story building. The team assistant looked back at his passengers and called out "Here we are, ladies. By the way, not one of you paid for this taxi." Shelby snorted. "Take it up with management." The driver grinned back at her and once everyone had exited the van, honked and drove away.

The 4 women went inside and took the elevator up to the 6th floor. Miho had looked around and found that the building had a rustic charm to it. Not too modern, but not too old fashioned either; very homey and warm.

Once they had gotten to their respective flats (being across the hall from each other), the two older women bade them a good night and went into their flat. Miho and Erika entered their own home and looked around.

The entryway was a simple yet effective affair, and after removing their shoes (and laughing as Miho tripped over her luggage), they decided to explore their new home a bit. The kitchen was to the right of the entryway. Miho instantly loved it. Spacious and modern were how she would describe it. All the appliances were stainless steel, and the nice countertops and bar-style eating area were well laid out and beautiful. Poking around in the cupboards showed that while they did have pots, pans, and other small appliances, tomorrow would be a busy day of shopping for dishes and other odds and ends. Moving on from the kitchen, Miho ran into Erika in the living room. A large sectional couch sat in one corner with a large TV across from it. In the wall between these was a large sliding glass door that lead to a large private balcony. Looking down, Miho noticed the richly coloured wood floor. Moving on, she found the washroom. In this was Miho's first notice in living space between Canada and Japan: The toilet and bathtub were in the same room, albeit this was a large washroom. Luckily there was a divider between the washroom and restroom portioned. Also in here, behind a further set of doors was a washer and dryer.

When Miho got to the bedrooms, she found that while simple, the rooms were quite large, with big windows and solidly built furniture. She also found (quite happily) that someone had already provided sheets and pillows for the bed. Also in the room was a walk in closet to the left of the door, and a nice large desk across from her bed. On the desk was a stack of team and league documents, and a guide written up about the closest stores to start making purchases for living. Remembering that Shelby and Evangeline had promised to help them with getting settled in tomorrow, Miho was not as interested in that.

Instead she walked out of her room and was about to call out to Erika when she looked into the other bedroom and found Erika fast asleep on her bed. Smiling, Miho snuck in and pulled her blankets over her. Walking back into her own room, Miho decided to read the new documents to pass the time. After collecting her backpack from the entryway, she plugged in her phone to charge and set her laptop on the desk, then grabbed the documents and sitting on her bed started to review them.

She was fast asleep within 2 minutes.

* * *

 **So, finally an update. Or something.**

 **So about that Belgian schooling. First Cycle of secondary would be about grade 6-7 in North America. Middle school/Junior High. You may have also noticed about the speaking parts of some of the characters. I tried to keep a language dialect to english. IE: Dat instead of that, missed words, ETC. I may just make everyone a perfect english speaker, not sure yet.**

 **BTW, this seems fast. In sports, it's not that uncommon. In the QMJHL, one of my teammates was traded for and he had a 22 hour bus ride, then had to get off the bus and immediately play a game. Sports is an unforgiving grind. Pro Athletes are insane when it comes to dedication.**

 **R &R my friends.**


	4. Torture and Pain, AKA the Mall

For what was to be the first of many times that day Miho was thankful for her new teammates. When she had woken up the next morning she had shuffled her way to the bathroom, then after that made her way sleepily to the kitchen and looked around. Opening the fridge, Miho could only groan. Empty.

"I see you've noticed what I did." Miho turned around and spotted Erika fully awake and dressed in a simple green sundress and black sweater.

"Yup. What should we do for breakfast? What time is it anyways?"

"About 9AM. And I'm not sure what we'll do. Maybe we can head next door to see if Evangeline and Shelby have any ideas?" Miho thought that over and finally agreed after a few silent moments.

"Let me shower and get dressed."

Before either could move more than a few steps their phones went off simultaneously. Miho walked to her room and opened her phone. It was a text message from Evangeline, but then came another text from someone else, then another, then more again:

Evangeline: _loopin in the new girls_

Unknown: _orly? welcome!_

Unknown: _ohai:)_

Unknown: _fresh meat huehuehu3_

Shelby: _what is girl_

Unknown: _lol 9 am? Crazy_

Unknown: _Rembmwr the team meeting l8r_

Unknown: _*remembwt_

Unknown: _*remember god_

Shelby: _I havnt forgot god tho_

Unknown: _lol_

Miho stared at her phone, bewildered. _What is this?_ She remembered adding Evangeline's contact information to her phone, along with Shelby's, but had no clue what was going on. She'd add it to the list to ask, and just go along with it for now.

Me: _Its great to be here_

Unknown: _AWWWWW so cuute 3_

Erika: _thakn you for the invite_

Unknown: _so formal :D_

Unknown: _start a new brek count plz_

Unknown: _2 weeks tops_

Unknown: _i think a month_

Unknown: _r we rly beting on when they stop being so formal_

Unknown: _and sink to our lvl?_

Unknown: _ya_

Unknown: _ok a week_

Unknown: _MIHO ! :D where is oddball :P_

Miho read the growing conversation, a grin forming on her face. She surmised the last message was from Kay; who else would know about the 'Legend of Sgt. Oddball' in this group? She _assumed_ the 'brek count' was some inside joke, but would ask someone about it later.

Setting her phone down, Miho proceeded to the washroom to shower. After letting the water run for a few moments to warm up she entered the shower and almost melted at how good the water felt. After spending a few minutes just standing in the water she started to wash herself, and when she was about finished she heard a faint knocking from outside the washroom followed by muted voices; she couldn't make out the words through the door and the sound of the shower.

Turning off the water and drying herself off, she opened the washroom door a crack and looked out. Not spotting anyone in the immediate vicinity, she rushed to her bedroom and proceed to get dressed, choosing some tan capris and a black blouse. She looked into the mirror briefly and, determining that her outfit was sufficient, proceeded back out into the kitchen.

* * *

Erika sat down on the bench, put her head back, and felt like melting right there. It had been 4 hours since Miho, Shelby, Evangeline, and herself had taken a cab to the closest mall to start shopping for everything they needed. Having spent most of her life living on the _Graf Zeppelin_ ior in a small suburb of Kumamoto City and therefore was only used to the traditional Japanese-style shopping arcade. It was no surprise to anyone that both herself and Miho were quite shocked and overwhelmed by the large 2 level structure.

 _O_ _h, you'll be fine,_ Shelby had said, _this won't take anytime at all!_

So blindly Miho and Erika had followed the two older women on what could only be described as a long slog that gave Erika a headache and caused Miho's feet to become sore. Erika 's brain had long turned to mush; bags and boxes from Banana Republic, Shoppers, Walmart, Sears, La Senza, Roots, Chateau, and more contained clothes, small appliances, dishes, toiletries, cleaning products, and whatever small furniture they needed, they had finally finished what they expected to be everything they needed.

Thus, Erika had decided to get off her feet while they waited for the cab to load their 3 cart loads of purchases into. Feeling a pressure in the bench beside her, Erika looked over and found Miho looking much like she herself felt: dead.

"I wish I hadn't worn these sandals. I don't think I'll ever look at them the same again." Miho stated. Erika quickly glanced at Miho's feed and let out a puff of air. Miho was wearing a very cute, yet unsuitable, pair of designer-style sandals. _Good thing I wore slip-ons, those look like torture_ Erika thought to herself.

"OK! Now we go back home, drop all of this stuff off, and go grocery shopping!" Shelby happily said, then looked over at what could be best described as Miho and Erika shaped puddles on the bench. "C'mon girls! Look lively now, right? We get this done now, and we won't need to worry about it later." Evangeline nodded her head and stated her agreement.

Erika simply groaned, and saw Miho bury her head in her hands. Erika opened her mouth to say something but a car horn startled her, and she instead yelped. Their cab had arrived. Grunting, she got to her feet and helped Miho up, who looked like she'd rather be anywhere but here. It took the four a few minutes to get everything piled (piled being the optimal word) into the back of the cab van, and they all climbed into the passenger seating. As Evangeline got into the front and told the driver their destination, Shelby turned to Erika who was seated beside her and as they got underway smirked and simply said "And I heard that cute little noise you made. Any one else ever heard that before?"

Erika could only drop her head and cover her eyes.

* * *

By the time Miho and Erika had drug everything up to their flat it was nearing two in the afternoon,and they found that they had barely any time to relax before they received a call from Mari, the team captain.

" _Don't forget we have a meeting at four. We have a van coming to pick up the six of you in that building. Be ready to go by three."_ was all that was said to them. Once she had hung up, Miho looked over at Erika who returned the questioning look.

"So two more of our teammates live in this building? I'm surprised they didn't introduce themselves when we moved in." Miho mused. Erika shrugged, obviously not concerned over this "Well, we've been here for less than a day, or they weren't told we moved in." Miho thought about it for a few more moments then with a tilt of her head seemed to agree with her room mate's analysis.

"Well, we have about an hour until we need to be ready to go. Now Shelby can't drag us out to go shopping anymore."

Erika suppressed a giggle, then looked at the pile of bags in the living room of their flat. An hour gave the two some time to put their new things away. Instead of blindly running all about the flat like idiots putting things in their appropriate places, Miho decided, they sorted everything into piles as to where in the flat it all goes, then once sorted distributed appropriately. The two had lost track of time until Miho glanced at the oven's clock and noted that they had five minutes to get downstairs to wait for their van.

"Erika, we need to go. It's almost three."

"Right. Let me wash up for a few seconds."

Miho realised that with Erika in the washroom she wouldn't also have time to do so so she wetted a facecloth at the kitchen sink and wiped her face and neck with it while walking into her room. On the bed was a pile of new clothes, personal products, and her luggage. Opening her suitcase she took out a pair of jeans and a simple shirt with the Oorai school logo with 'Senshado' on the back and changed. Looking at her sandals, she snorted and put on socks then some sneakers. Grabbing a sweater on her way out, as well has her phone and purse, she and Erika headed out the door. She looked to her left and saw Shelby and Eva (as she wished to be known) also leaving their flat. _I have no idea how neither look even the least bit tired or sore_ Miho thought to herself _they must be crazy._

"Oh, hey!" Eva called out, "Did you two also know about our other teammates living here?" Both Miho and Erika shoot their heads, and Eva nodded "Figures."

As the group got into the elevator, Shelby put her arms around the two younger women and smiled. "Don't worry girls. After the meeting we'll go grocery shopping."

Miho felt her face twitch, and Erika sighed beside her, causing both Shelby and Eva to laugh.

"You know, if you get it all done now, you can relax tomorrow. That is unless training starts tomorrow or something. At which point, you simply won't have time."

Miho thought about that. While she hated the thought of shopping any more today, Shelby had a point. Besides, then She and Erika could when they wake up instead of having to go out and hopefully find something they like.

As they reached the lobby of the building, everyone started to guess as to what the other two people would be like. As the doors opened and it became apparent who the others were Miho started. There stood a rather average young man and a remarkably petite woman with silvery green hair done up in tails held by two black bows. While she didn't quite look the same in casual clothes, the hair style plus the sharp face was clear who this woman was.

"Anchovy?" Both Erika and Miho blurted out at the same time.

"Christ. I know she's small but there's no reason to call her an anchovy!" The man standing there said rather quickly. Shelby stared at Miho and Erika, while Eva facepalmed. Miho started to try and explain what she meant, but the small woman rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Miho, eliciting a high pitched "EEP!" from Miho, a smirk from Erika, and confused stares from the other three.

"Miho! It's so good to see you again! You as well, Itsumi." Anchovy let go of Miho and hugged Erika, who was also surprised and vocalized it.

"Well, apparently there's history here don't know." the man exhailed then smiled. "I'm sorry about my outburst, however I'm rather.. Protective of Chiyomi." Miho turned and bowed to the man in front of her.

"I'm Miho Nishizumi. I've known Anchovy for a few years now from High School Senshado."

Miho looked back up at the man, whose face lit up in understanding. "It's all starting to come together now. Whenever I ask her about her high school days, there always seems to be some… gaps in the stories. Mostly about herself. Anchovy, was it?"

Miho looked over at Anchovy who was now blushing and staring at the ceiling. "Uhh… yes. My nickname in school was Anchovy." She looked back at Miho and extended her hand. "My actual name is Anzai Chiyomi."

"That's a beautiful name." was all Miho could say, which caused the woman to start blushing deeply again.

"I should introduce myself. I'm Akiyama Sora. I'm Chiyomi's fianceé."

"Oh… congratulations" Miho said. Just then Erika spoke up for the first time.

"I understand… Chiyomi… being here, but how about you, sir?"

"Right. I'm one of the technical leads for the Tankery team. I'm the lead for armaments. That means I'm in charge of the crew who maintains the cannons and other weapon systems for all of the vehicles. I'm also in charge of ensuring that all vehicles are loaded for a match and practice. Another one of my duties is to work with all the loaders to ensure that their system inside the vehicle is configured perfectly for them. Some participants prefer the HEAT ammunition in the front…" and the man prattled on for a few moments about ammunition organization for different people, then trailed off as he realized he was rambling.

While all of this was going on Shelby and Eva and smiled and stepped outside, and chose this moment to return back to the lobby.

"I hate to break up our little love fest, but the van is here, and we're on a tight schedule."

"HAI!" Miho shouted on instinct, then blushed as everyone else laughed as they made their way outside. As the group climbed into the van, Miho sat besideAnchovy and started "No one else knew you lived in this building…"

"No doubt Jessica forgot to tell you. She was really busy the last few days. I knew that some new members of the team were moving in, but forgot that you and Erika would be part of that "new" group. I've lived here for the last year and a half."

Miho smiled. "So you were drafted last season then?"

"Nope. I wasn't drafted; I was offered a contract because Anzio's tankery instructor knows Jessica from a while back. She said some words, I tried out for the team and made it. So here I am. I'm a driver by the way. No command for me, but that's perfectly fine."

"And, if you don't mind, what about him?"

Anchovy blushed, then spoke rather quietly "I had met him during my senior year. He's from the same town as I am and I had never really talked to him before. We met at a festival, he thought I was cute. He's not too bad looking, really strong, and makes good money. Well, I make more than him, but we started dating a little while afterwards, so when he found out I was coming here to be a member of the team, he suggested we live together. A few weeks ago, BOOM! Proposal out of nowhere."

"That's so sweet!"

"Well, there's some concerns on if I get traded or something like that, but I took a discount to stay here for more years on my contract, so I'm relatively cheap in terms of contract money. Jessica basically stated I'm pure value for money. Plus I'm good. So there's that" Anchovy said the last part and stucker nose up in the air for a few moments then started laughing. Miho laughed along with her.

Shelby turned in her seat and asked "So who'll be at this meeting?"

Anchovy's fianceé spoke up from the front. "Everyone. All tank crews, technical crews, support teams, coaching staff, everyone. This is the 'This is our team, here is the training schedule, this is when the season starts' meeting. As well, the new people get introduced, and you will all receive your lockers, your tour of the facility, and all that while us old-timers get to hang out and talk with the new coaching and strategy staff starting this year. It should be interesting."

"Miho and Itsumi, you're lucky you weren't here last year," Anchovy stated, "the old coaching staff was fired an hour after the last match of our season was done."

"What?" Erika couldn't believe it. "An hour after the match? What happened?"

"Well, when you go 2 wins, 22 losses on the season, things look they left the field and within an hour they were called into Jessica's office, and not too soon after that they were gone. It was crazy."

Miho just stared. Shelby and Eva just sat and nodded.

"Well, either way this is a fresh start for you guys at least."

Eva laughed. "Fresh indeed. Win the championship, then get traded."

"Well, it happens."

"Yup."

Miho turned to stare out the window as the older women spoke. _This is crazy._ She thought. _People getting fired, and everyone's acting like it's normal._

Miho had no idea that her idea of crazy was now going to become her new 'Normal".

 **Authors Note: Apparently I overlooked that Anchovy already HAD a name. Updated as such.**


	5. Moron Bros

Erika stepped out of the van, stretched, then looked around. After the surprisingly long drive from the apartment building to the team's facilities away from the city (due to the traffic at three in the afternoon) they had pulled onto a tree lined driveway. After a quick stop with the security at the entrance to the path which required every one in the van to provide their passes, they had driven another five minutes to the main team building.

In front of her Erika saw a well maintained garden filled with colourful flowers and small shrubs that ran along the front of a Modern two-story glass and brown masonry building. A brick and stone inlay on the path before her that made up the team logo and the city name.

Looking back towards the entrance of the road she saw that behind the wall that surrounded the compound was a well maintained lawn with some burnt spots here and there. In the roundabout that they had gotten out of the van on there was a stunningly beautiful weeping willow planted in a small round patch of grass. The sea breeze gently rustled the tree's branches and leaves.

"Hello! Welcome back some of you, and welcome to our home!" called out a voice behind Erika, from the entrance to the building. Erika turned about and saw Jessica walking towards them, followed by a number of people she didn't recognize and the team captain that she had met a few months before… _Marie? Mari? I'll remember it soon enough_ Erika thought to herself. Beside her, Miho bowed deeply and called back "Thank you for having us!" Erika quickly bowed along with her.

"Stop that. We'll have no bowing here. You're now family so stop it. Eventually you'll start thinking it silly as well." Jessica said as she walked up to the group with her hand up by her head, palm facing them.

Erika immediately straightened and apologized, as did Miho.

"Now that that's been straightened out, we'll have a quick get together today with the team and staff and for the new people a small tour. Chiyomi, you'll be sticking with the team today as we work on some things with the coaches when the rest go on the tour. Hopefully you had no plans, as you won't be leaving until about nine or so. Well, Chiyomi you'll be able to leave earlier, and I expect that Sora will want to go eat. That's all he seems to do." Jessica explained as they walked into the building. Once she was though the door Erika looked around as she found herself in a large atrium that had a grey tile floor and a mezzanine that had a number of doors; some were open, with people walking in and out, others closed. Towards the back of the atrium was a large desk with a number of people seated at it either talking on the phone or typing at their computers. One older man sat sorting what appeared to be mail. On either side of the desk were doors, both with a small black box on the wall beside them with a small red light in the face.

Continuing to follow Jessica, Erika watched as the older woman pulled her team pass out from a pocket of her jacket and tapped it against the black box next to the door on the right; the box beeped and the light turned green, after which Jessica pulled the door open.

Seeing Erika looking at the black box, Jessica pulled her pass out of her pocket again.

"Remember how I said that these were your passes? They're also digital keycards. Tap this against the ioProx beside a door and you can get through it. Well, most of them. Each person's card is unique, so we can program the cards to allow you through only the doors you should be accessing. So you can't get into my office, for example. Or, Sora back there" she gestured with her head behind Erika "can't get into the locker rooms to stare at naked young women or steal their underwear"

Erika quickly turned her head around to see the aforementioned man blushing while stammering "As if I… I… would do such a thing!" and Anchovy holding onto his shoulder laughing.

"Anyways, let's moving or we'll be late." Gesturing for the group to follow, she turned and started walking down the wide hallway behind the door. At the next intersection the group all took a right except Anchovy and Sora, who kept walking straight . Erika looked towards them in concern which caused Anchovy to waive her hand dismissively.

"We'll be right along, I'm going to the lounge to grab something to drink." And with that turned and kept walking. Erika turned her attention back to Jessica. While walking down this new hallway she heard Shelby and Eva talking.

"You know, this is a much nicer place than our old one."

"Well, Eva, that's usually the case with new buildings. They're nicer."

Erika decided to ask what their old team's building was like. Not that she had any other references, but she wanted to talk to someone just to calm herself down a bit.

"Well, it was an old Manor in the German countryside, so it was a bit old and dark. Don't get me wrong; it was beautiful and had a _lot_ of character, but it was kinda cold in the winter and the A/C didn't really do much when it was hot out."

Erika just nodded. Eventually the group went through a double door into a large speaking theatre with two large display screens at the front. The floor was covered in a patterned blue and gold carpet, and the seats were upholstered in alternating rows of the same blue and gold as on in the carpet. At the front of the theatre, below the two screens, was a dais with a microphone set into it and a table beside it with some people she didn't recognize at it talking amongst themselves. The front of the dias had the team logo on it.

Looking up at the seats Erika noted that almost all the seats were filled with women of various ages and nationalities. Spread among them were a good number of men, some of whom were wearing team jackets. _I'm assuming those are the support crew members that Anchovy and her fianceé mentioned earlier_ Erika mused. Jessica turned to the group and with a gesture towards the seats said "Take a seat. We'll be starting soon."

Erika turned to Miho, who looked so nervous she wanted to melt into the floor, and shrugged. With a sigh, Miho started up the stairs towards some empty seats near the middle of the room. On the way up, the two young women received nods or simple 'hey theres' from some of the women seated along the stairs. Finding some empty seats right next to the stairs, she turned and sat down a few seats in; Miho followed suit. A few moments later Shelby and Eva made their way up to the same row; their progress was slower as the two stopped to talk with the occasional person on the way up.

Erika felt a tap on her left shoulder. She leaned back and turned to look at the person who tapped her. The first thing she saw was the largest pair of breasts she'd ever seen, then the long brown hair that.. accented them. Tearing her eyes of the mountains in front of her she looked up to the face of the woman seated behind her. The woman had the deepest green eyes she had ever seen, a pair of half-rimmed glasses, a fantastically figured face, a smirk, a very confident demeanor about her.

"Y'all the rookies? Well, I recognize the 'thother two, but you two cuties is definitely new. And don't worry about the starin'; I've gotten used to it. Mostly." The woman drawled with a giggle and jiggle.

Finding herself having to again tear her eyes off the woman's chest, Erika answered back. "Yes. I'm Itsu… Erika Itsumi. And this is Miho Nishizumi." Miho simply half smiled and nodded to the woman.

"Yessir! Well, for y'alls information, you are speakin' to Danielle Schellenger from Roanoke Virginia. That's in the US of A, just for ya to know." The woman again drawled. Erika had no clue where this woman was from in the US, but she know it was sort of hard to make out exactly what she was saying. Deciding that she meant her know harm, she took the offered hand and the older woman took her hand and vigorously pumped it. "Now to get to some rules for y'all. Don't be callin' me Danielle. I'll take Dani, Dan, Ellie, but most of the other girls call me Momma."

"Momma? That's… different."

"Well, when you're the oldest bitch in the room, it's gonna happen."

"Oh. I… see?"

Danielle just laughed and, shaking her head, sat back in her seat and looked over at another woman who was looking at her phone. "As I said, 2 weeks. The new'uns will take a bit longer this time around." The other woman just snorted.

"OK, so once Chiyomi sits herself down, we're good to go." A voice boomed from the PA system. Erika turned back to the front. At the podium was an older woman with short greying black hair wearing a black tracksuit.

"I found out her nickname is Anchovy!" Shouted a man's voice from the opposite side of the theatre which Erika recognised as Sora's, starting a round of laughter and some catcalling and causing Anchovy to bury her face in her hands and sink down into her seat so the only thing that was visible were the bows holding her hair and the top of the tails.

"Oh REALLY? Well, that sorts that out for the year." the woman at the lectern stated mischievously while looking over at the team's manager, who was trying to not also laugh. "I'll be sure to keep that one handy. Anyways, you all know me as your torture I MEAN your fitness and health manager. For those of you who are new, I'm Gertrude de Haas. I'll be keeping you fit and healthy. Anyways, you'll find our team fitness standards in your lockers as per usual. We'll once again be doing the assessments in 3 weeks or so. No need to be panicked or anything. If you aren't quite in shape, we'll work on it." Few of the other women laughed, and one groaned. Gertrude pointed at her and smiled. "You're first!" causing a ripple of laughter. "I have nothing else to add, so I'm done. Good to see you all again."

The woman turned and walked away from the dais, and from the table another woman stood up. Erika started, and beside her Miho did the same. Both recognized her as she was a frequent guest at the Nishizumi home on the _Graf Zeppelin_. Looking over at Miho, Erika raised her eyebrows quizzically and asked "She's a friend of your mother's isn't she?" Miho nodded, and looked back "I don't remember her name though. Mother and her never, as far as I can remember, talked about senshado at any time."

Erika turned her attention back to the woman who was now speaking.

"Welcome everyone. Most of you don't know me, but I am Miyuki Higaonna, and your new coach. I'm sure that this will be an entertaining and hopefully educational year. As I'm the only new member of this speaking group today, I should tell you a tiny bit about myself. I'm Japanese. I'm also a woman… I think." Erika looked around, and noted that some of her teammates were grinning. "I've been involved in Tankery since I was about six years old, maybe five. I studied under the Nishizumi school of Senshado until I joined the Tokyo team and was a member of that team in the late 80's and early 90's, but had to retire because of an injury. Since then I've been the Tankery coach at Paris-Sud University. Over the summer I got offered this position and I gladly accepted. I will have more information regarding our team direction in our training but expect us to maintain a fast, attacking, supportive approach to matches. You'll find, in your lockers, your new common strategy and formation guide." Finishing her introduction she stepped aside and bowed, and the audience welcomed her with a round of applause.

Miho leaned over and whispered "If she studied the Nishizumi school with Mother, she doesn't act like it." Erika slowly nodded and whispered back "To be fair, it IS your mother's family school, and she takes it quite serious."

When Erika leaned back she heard Danielle whispering to her neighbor "Ya know, this is the fourth formation book I'll have to study. It's hard after a while to remember them all."

Erika leaned back and asked "What do you mean fourth?"

"Including her, this is my fourth coach since coming here. Each coach has a different vision and strategy. Hopefully this one works out."

Erika sat forward again. Another person, this time a middle-aged man, was walking to the dais. He stepped up to the mic, cleared his throat, and started his speech.

"Well, another year. Because I'm sure you all forgot, I'm Richard Mattingly, the PR director. I just want to remind you all of a few things before we move on to our last few speakers…"

Erika almost immediately zoned out from the man's speech. She caught bits and pieces, such as "press events", "community outreach", "don't forget you represent the team and the league", and "social responsibility", but his speech was so _dry_. After finishing with "thank you for your time.", he simply walked over and sat back down to a smattering of clapping. _I hope to kami I never have to talk with him much_ was all Erika could think.

"Oh, that's Mari."

Erika heard Miho's softly spoken statement and looked down at the dais. Sure enough, there stood the team captain she had met over the summer.

"OK then. Here we are."

Mari looked around the crowd after saying this simple phrase. Erika noted that everyone else was looking back at her with more attention than they had given anyone else to this point. _Makes sense, she's one of them… us._

"To our new teammates, welcome. To those of us who were here last year… welcome back home."

Someone near the front whooped, then everyone else joined in for a few moments.

"Alright, let's keep it down for a bit longer. We'll have plenty of time for that later." Mari said seriously, but Erika could see the hints of a smirk forming on the other woman's face. "I'll keep this as short as I can. We have a fair number of new people this year, so in a time honored tradition we'll have last year's golden shell winners show the new people around today." Another round of laughter and catcalls. Erika saw a group of women hang their heads in the front row. She then felt a nudge from Miho, and she turned to look at her.

"I wonder what the golden shell is?" Miho asked her in a whisper.

Erika opened her mouth to say that she had no clue when Danielle's head appeared between them, causing Miho to jerk back in surprise.

"Hahaha. Well, the Golden Shell is an award given by the girls as a group to the crew that accidentally shot the most teammates during the season. So, it's not an award you want. It's not a _real_ team award; it's one of many inside jokes. Harmless fun, y'know?"

Erika grimaced then asked "Kind of like the Brek Count, then?"

Another laugh.

"Well, it's actually _Break_ Count, and yes. That's a bet to see how long rookies still act all prim and proper before they 'break' and start acting like the rest of us when we're amongst ourselves. Think of it as a rite of passage."

"You are _seriously_ betting on us no longer treating this sport with respect?"

"OK, so here's the thing, ladies. Where y'alls from, and trust me, I learned a few things from other Japanese teammates, Tankery is treated as some martial art that is the pinnacle of femininity, right?" Seeing both younger women nod, she continued. "Well, in most other countries, it's simply a sport. A _game_ , if you will. I can definitely understand that it won't be an easy adjustment for y'all, but once you accept that you are making a lot of money to play a game. You will lose matches; you can't stop that from happening. So give it your all and move on from how you used to think of it, you'll have way more fun with it." With that last statement, Danielle winked at them and sat back in her seat. Miho simply turned and stared down at Mari still speaking, while Erika processed this in her head.

 _Just a GAME? This is Senshado! There's no game here, this is a serious martial art! There's no way I can just suddenly say NOPE, JUST A GAME! I don't think she understands what this means to us Japanese! There's no way…_

Erika? Hey, are you OK?"

Erika snapped her head over to Miho, who was looking at her worriedly.

"I'm perfectly fine."

"You know, she's right."

Erika snorted. "This is NOT a game."

Miho closed her eyes momentarily, then opened them again.

"Remember when I left Kuromorimine and went to Oorai?"

"Of course. Why?"

"Remember how I started Senshado again after going to Oorai?"

"Hard to forget, really."

"You know… I… never wanted to do Senshado again. It was painful for me after… that time."

"Right…"

"But at Oorai I relearned something that I had forgotten."

"...and that was?"

"Senshado was fun. Do you remember you doing Senshado before High School? What do you remember?"

Erika paused. She remembered her friends, all smiling and having fun. She remembered both Miho and Maho laughing. She remembered laughing and smiling as well. _When did that change?_ Suddenly it hit her: High School. When it became less a sport for fun and friends and more about winning at all costs. She remembered her friends all quitting in their first year of High School, all saying that something had changed. Erika had never noticed it.

"I remember a lot of laughing, a lot of smiling…" Erika stopped again.

"What's wrong?"

"But isn't this like Kuromorimine all over again? Win at all costs?"

Miho thought about it briefly.

"I suppose so, but no one else we've met so far seems to be thinking of this as a win or lose situation. Remember _You will lose, there's no stopping that._ I don't feel that they expect us to win every match."

"I suppose not…"

Erika looked down and noticed that during her and Miho's talk, Mari had finished, and Jessica had almost finished.

"... and remember that if you lose your pass, go to security to obtain a new one. Remember that our team rules are binding, and we WILL fine you if you break them, to be taken out of your pay before you even see it. Now that we're done with the boring stuff, can I have all of our new member please stand? Everyone else, please give a SMALL welcome to your new teammates and crew members. No introductions, as each part of our team does that differently among themselves." As she said this, Jessica looked over to Mari with her eyebrows raised. Mari said nothing, and simply looked up at the ceiling as if it were the most interesting thing in the world.

Erika stood up and felt Miho do the same beside her. Looking about she saw a number of other people also stand up and do the same. Some of them looked familiar to her, but she wasn't sure why. Miho, for her part, simply looked straight ahead and waived.

"Now that that's done with, we'll have the new crew members exit out the back door, and the support crew come down here to meet your managers."

Erika and Miho both turned and exited the row they were in. Danielle looked over at them and whispered "Good luck. Knowing your guides you'll be better off showing THEM around." as they headed up the stairs to the exit. The woman beside her laughed at that and stretched her arms above her head then leaned far forward to speak someone two rows ahead of her.

Exiting the back doors Erika found herself in a small lobby. On the opposite side from the door was a large glass wall that overlooked a lawn that rand from what looked like the back of the building to a river of some sort. To the right was a paved road crossed the river, to the left the lawn continued along the river. The far side of the river, as far as she could tell, was the main tank sheds and workshops. She assumed as much as most of the buildings were in a dirt compound surrounded by high fences. She couldn't see any bay doors from her perspective, but in the compound sat a few tanks and some armoured fighting vehicles with people climbing over them. At the far left of the compound was a large, long building with a smokestack of sorts beside it. She assumed this was a mechanical depot; Kuromorimine had a smaller version of it in their own tank lot. Running beside that was a dirt path leading into a forest. Beyond all of that was a massive expanse of forests and clearings. In the distance she also spotted a few lakes and some hills.

Erika turned to speak to Miho when Shelby and Eva came in through the door followed by the other women she had met the day before. Behind them was a group of people she didn't recognize who she assumed were also new.

Shelby and Eva walked over to stand with Erika and Miho, who was also looking out the window. Shelby had barely opened her mouth to speak when the door behind them opened up and out stepped their guides.

Erika almost facepalmed. There, her typical hot-pants, black t-shirt, and jacket, stood none other than Kay. Behind her was Naomi and another women she didn't recognize wearing a red and checkered lolita… thing with two toned brown/blond hair who she assumed was part of the same crew as Kay and Naomi.

"Oh my god MIHO!" Kay practically shouted and ran up to Miho and bear-hugged the poor young woman.

Erika smirked as she turned from her friend's unfortunate situation and looked at Naomi.

"Golden Shell? How did someone as good of a shot as you pull that off."

Naomi, to her credit, simply sniffed at this and answered "I'll just say that it was a long day and leave it at that for now. I'm sure you'll hear the story a few times before the week is done."

The unknown woman beside her rolled her eyes at Naomi's statement and let her displeasure about the whole situation known while crossing her arms.

"Well YOU shot at a tank. THREE tanks, actually. And wouldn't you know, both teams used the SAME type of tank. Good shots, mind you, but bad targets. I SUPPOSE you could could hide behind the excuse that you couldn't tell from the angle you shot them from, but that's just an excuse. So now every time we line up shots, I GUARANTEE we'll be teased about target verification. Of course, our ACTING commander's tits are bigger than her brain so she told you to keep firing. Like an idiot."

From this small outburst Erika determined a few things:

The woman is German

The woman isn't happy with Naomi or Key

The woman is a complete bitch

Kay turned around from speaking with Miho, Shelby, and Eva, and walked over to the woman, while saying soothingly "Now now, princess, no need to get mad. Think of it as a learning experience: Let's not do that again." Upon reaching the woman Kay gently pulled her into a hug. After struggling for a few minutes with the occasional 'Get off me, idiot!' the woman's arms dropped to her sides and she appeared to submit to the larger woman. Erika noted that after Kay let her go she actually _did_ appear much calmer.

"And this lovely bundle of joy is Galiena Müller. And before she says it she's Austrian, not German." This prompted a "HMMPH!" and an upturn of the woman's nose. "Anyways, let's start the tour! You are currently in the main administrative building. You won't spend much time here unless you're meeting with Jessica or PR. You really only pass through this building on your way to the crew and staff buildings. So if you'll follow me, we'll go there."

Kay turned to the right of the doors to the theatre, then stopped after a few meters at a three-way intersection. She looked both ways before leaning over to Naomi and asking quietly "Uh, which way again?"

Naomi looked both ways as well, the whole time saying "Uhhhhhh…"

"GOD you two are unbelievable. Go left."

Kay turned to the smaller woman "I'm fairly certain it's right, though."

"This is SOOOO stupid. Go. Left."

"Uhhhhhh…." Naomi was still debating on her own which way was correct.

Erika could only shake her head. Beside her Miho was trying to to giggle, whereas Shelby had given up; she was openly laughing at the display in front of her. The rest of the group followed the conversation back and forth with their eyes, growing more and more concerned.

The argument kept going for a few minutes longer until Jessica walked around the corner to the right and after having watched for a few moments, decided enough was enough.

"Hate to interrupt ladies, but the way out is _there_." She stated matter-of-fact-ly while pointing back in the direction they had came from. Kay and Galiena both stopped arguing abruptly and started blushing. With a small smile and wave, Jessica kept walking along the hallway to the left.

"AHA!" Naomi shouted. "It's the OTHER way!" And turned around to see everyone staring her as though she were crazy. Well, everyone except Shelby who was leaning against the wall laughing, Kay and Galiena who were staring at the floor, and Erika.

Who was facepalming, eyes closed.

* * *

 **Author's notes:**

 **So apparently I overlooked that Anchovy already had a name; I've updated the last chapter and this one with this info.**

 **I'm going to try to get 2 chapters out a month now that I've gotten more impetus to keep writing.**

 **To imagine how some of these characters look:**

 **Danielle: Sexy librarian with long brown hair. Kinda plain, but also good looking in that respect. Large chest. What else can I say?**

 **Galiena: Launch HuniePop. Open your HunieBee. Go to Girls. Find Audrey Belrose. Make sure she's wearing her Scene Girl outfit. Now change her hairstyle to Rosewood. Now go talk to her. Give her an Austrian accent. Done. Oh, and take away the drugs, cause EWW.**

 **Miyuki - An older Ami Chouno. MILF Chouno.**

 **I decided to make Kay/Naomi and that crew the Moron Bros… I knew guys like this in hockey: completely insane and silly, but some of the best teammates you could ask for. We'd lose a game 7-1, and they'd be there goofing off trying to make us laugh and move on from it. If you got hurt on purpose, they'd fight a guy twice their size to settle the score.**

 **The rating has increased to Teen becuase language.**


	6. Tourism Halifax, but not actually

"And this is the, uh… uh…" Kay's eyes drifted out of focus as she started rapidly snapping the fingers on her right hand. "Right! This is the FacCor, or Facilities Co-ordinator, office. Basically, the person who maintains both the publicly viewed lawns and stuff and the tankery stuff."

While normally an attentive and respectful person, Miho was growing quite bored of this tour. Every door was explained (redundant as they all had nameplates on them), every hall way was explored (mostly because Kay and Galiena would argue over the best way to go), and every time the new team-mates behind them slipped further and further into a mindless, numb daze. It had been slightly more than half an hour and Miho was wishing that she could just go home.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Erika blatantly yawning. _Magical,_ Miho thought, now trying to suppress a yawn herself, _how much more of this are we going to suffer?_

Kay spin around while walking and opened her mouth to say something, but paused. With her eyes briefly sliding out of focus after looking at the now thoroughly numb group following her, she realized that if she didn't get to something more interesting, she'd need to get sleeping bags to drag them around in.

She spun round and whispered something to Galiena, then spun back around. Pulling her pass from a pocket of her shorts, she scanned it against the sensor for a double door to her right, and once it beeped, opened both sides of it, causing Miho to wince as the bright evening sunlight and humid air rushed in through the door. Blinking, she looked out and saw a small fleet of 6-wheeled utility vehicles parked in a gravel parking lot. Beyond that was the lawn/river she had seen at the beginning of the tour, and the compound. From the ground level however the distance looked much further than from above.

"I think we've bored you enough. This is our entrance and exit to the proving grounds. Our locker room is in the compound, as is most of our other stuff like the showers and rec facilities. We'll spend almost all of our time across the river. So if you'd like to climb into one of the buggies, we'll go and take a look!"

Looking around, Miho stepped out through the door. Looking to either left or right had the same rough view: the lawn and river stretched a fair distance in each direction, and was cut off by the edge of the woods that surrounded the compound. The river appeared to run into the woods. Behind her the door slammed shut, and taking a quick look a few other women had joined the group; they were already getting into the driver seats of some of the buggies. With a glance at the driver of the buggy in front of her (who replied with a smile and wave), Miho climbed into the back and sat on the seat closest to the driver, who for her part turned and extended her hand.

"Ana Júlia Senna, from Brazil."

The woman had the most beautiful tanned skin and black hair that Miho had ever seen, and her curves, while fairly well hidden by the jumpsuit she was wearing, were definitely well developed. What struck Miho the most was the woman's piercing eyes.

Miho shook the hand offered to her, and replied "Miho Nishizumi, Japan."

"Well met. Better strap in, we're heading out." And with barely much more of a glance, she turned her head and turned the buggy on. Miho quickly fastened the lap strap and had just gotten it closed when the buggy took off down the gravel path. Miho turned her head to look in the direction they were driving. A short drive down the gravel road, then a right turn onto the paved road that ran parallel to the river. Miho turned her head to her front and looked across the river and saw the compound was much larger than it appeared at first glance. The small cavalcade continued on for a few minutes until a left hand turn brought them across the bridge and into the compound itself. A further turn to the left and the group stopped on another gravel lot. Seeing the rest of the group dismounting their vehicles, Miho undid her belt and stepped down. With a wave, the other women who had joined them for the ride headed out across the compound.

Miho looked around while waiting for more instruction. Before her was a decently sized brick building with a single door in the face. The large windows were unfortunately reflecting the evening sun, therefor she couldn't see through them. Miho estimated that the building was about 100 meters long and about 60 wide and 3 stories.

"This is what we call the Den. It's our little home away from home. Let's go on in." Kay led the group through the front door of the building. Inside was a fairly large reception area that contained some benches and a wall that was entirely shoe cubbies. Following everyone else's lead, Miho removed her shoes and placed them into a cubby. Looking around, Miho didn't see any slippers or indoor shoes. Before she even had a chance to ask, Kay called out "Socks only, we don't want any mess around here."

Looking over at Erika, Miho turned and followed the group. From the reception area, they entered through another set of double doors into what could be best considered a large lounge. There were multiple couches on the left side facing a large TV, with what Miho could best describe as a kitchen area across from it to her left, along with some dining tables.

"Here's our lounge. I shouldn't need to explain. Everything in the fridge is free to use for a meal; our nutritionists keep it well stocked. There's also a separate fridge," Kay explained as she lead them over to the kitchen area, "of just drinks. No alcohol here… you'll get sports drinks, water, milk, juice. That sort of stuff." Kay opened a stainless steel door in front of her that was, as explained, full of drinks. "Our only rule is if you dirty it, you clean it. Plates and bowls are here, pans are down there. If you notice we're low on something just tell the staff and they'll restock" Miho nodded along with her explanation.

Key then led the group through another set of glass double doors into an intersection of hallways. To the front was a very wide hallway with a set of what looked to be big heavy wood doors at the other end. The right led to a stairway, the left to a turn. "To your left is the uniform workshop. If you need replacements or repairs to your uniform, that's where it's done. Other than that no need to go there. Up those stairs is the coaching offices and meeting rooms. Unless you've done something wrong, you won't need to go there, either. Also up there are the training rooms. They're for team leaders to review strategies. Again, unless you're a team leader, you don't need to go there. Moving right along." Kay started walking down the large hallway.

"Past here is only for team members and coaches. No men allowed. You'll understand why soon enough." Kay keyed the door with her pass and held the door open for the group to pass through.

"Galiena will take over here."

The smaller woman stepped forward.

"Here is our locker room area." The woman led them to their left into a large room comprised of a number of stalls, some empty, but others with olive green jumpsuits hanging in them. "Please spend some time finding your stall; that is where you will change and get ready for practices and matches."

Miho walked through the room and after a few seconds found her stall, marked out by a placard above it that read 'MIHO NISHIZUMI, M 2-05'. Inside were two olive green tank crew uniforms, both that had a nameplate that read NISHIZUMI and shoulder patches that read 2-02. The team logo was embroidered above the left breast pocket. On the bench at knee level was a packet including a coil-bound book labelled 'Maneuvers, Halifax' and a few other documents including a schedule. On the floor under the bench were two pairs of standard black military-style boots and a tank crew helmet, in the same green as the uniforms with the name NISHIZUMI labelled on the back.

Looking around, she noticed that the stalls on either side of hers were labelled much the same. To her right was a stall labelled 'DA COSTA, M 2-05' _Does that mean that Eva and I are in the same tank?_ Miho thought to herself. To the left was 'COLETTE, M 2-05' but to the right of that again was a label that read 'TBD M 2-05' with no name. Noticing Naomi walking behind her, Miho asked 'Why is that one blank?" to which the answer was "Usually it means that they aren't sure who's going to be there. There's a lot of women here trying out for the team who don't have contracts yet. It could be one of them if they do good enough in training camp, or they could trade for someone."

Miho turned to face Naomi.

"What do you mean, don't have contracts?"

"There are only so many spots per team, and there are more people than positions. So you'll see teams invite unsigned people to fill the last few spots of the roster. Sometimes another team sees what someone has accomplished in our camp and offers them a contract, and we'll sometimes do the same."

"What happens to the ones that aren't offered a contract?"

"They'll usually go and join a team in a lower league. They still get to do tankery, but they get payed way less and don't get the benefits that we will, like medical staff and nutritionists and the like."

"Oh."

Miho thought about this for a few moments as Naomi walked away _I already have a tank, and I see that Erika does as well… so then they must think highly of us._

"OK, let's keep this little tour going shall we?" Galiena called out. Miho gathered up the packet on the bench and moved forwards. Gesturing with her head, Galiena lead the group through an opening in the locker room into a compact tiled room.

"Here are the showers and bathroom. Sinks to the left, toilets to the right. Self explanatory. Further up here," the woman gestured to her right, "is the hot tub. Try not to do anything questionable in there. Next to that are the showers." Miho looked into the showers and found an open tiled room with a number of showerheads sticking out of the wall. _Group shower. Great._ "And to the left of that, the sauna. Please keep in mind the sauna rules, as we don't like having to rescue people. Anyways, let's move onto the rest of the building."

The group moved back through the locker room and into the hall. Galiena had shown them the strategy room (a small theatre with a projector), the fitness room (a combination cardio and weight room), and the medical office (a small clinic that also housed an office for the fitness manager.

"In here is the laundry facility, not our place to play, and through here is the compound. Find a pair of those boots that fit you," the Austrian stated as she pointed to a rack of boots beside her, "and we'll take a quick look at the compound." Galiena opened a large set of steel doors and the group stepped back out into the humid late summer air. Miho looked around as the group made their way to the tank sheds she had seen earlier.

There were three moderately sized buildings to the right, as well as one larger building to the left. At the far end of the compound was the again larger building with the smokestack she had seen earlier.

"Our tanks are in these three buildings. Each one is labelled for each team, one through three. Your tank will be in the appropriately numbered building. Your maintenance crews will also be in these buildings. If you are an AFV crewie, you're in this building, which we call the Fortress," Galiena pointed to the building to the right, "along with our simulators. We have five computer-based simulators. These are not World of Tanks, but real simulators. I'd love to show you, but you'll see them enough in the next few weeks as it is. To your front is the machine shop. We have to make a lot of our parts, so that's where it's done. The technical team's offices are also in there. Don't go in there."

Miho looked towards the woods to her right and saw a dirt path that lead straight in. Miho was about to ask about it then noticed a sign beside the path at the edge of the woods:

 **WARNING**

 **ACCESS RESTRICTED BEYOND THIS POINT**

 **DANGEROUS MANEUVERS**

 **FIREARMS IN USE**

 **WARNING**

 _Well, that's my answer_ Miho thought. Turning around, she noticed that a large number of teammates had just exited the Den. At their head was Mari.

"Thank you ladies. I see everything that needed to be covered has been, so you," Mari pointed at Miho, Erika, Eva, Shelby, and a few others "are free to go. Remember, the schedule in your packet is absolute; memorize it. We don't tolerate lateness. Training starts at nine tomorrow morning. It's now six-thirty. Have a nice night and see you tomorrow." The woman nodded then walked past the group and into the Fortress with the rest of her group.

Kay barked out a laugh.

"She never changes, does she? Let's get you guys out of here so I can go home and relax."

* * *

Erika flopped onto her bed, happy to be home. After leaving the team complex, Shelby had harassed the van driver to stop at a grocery store on the way home so they could get some groceries. She had been amazed at the size of the store they had been in, and the large selection of seemingly everything available. After getting home and the groceries herself and Miho had bought (it was decided to combine the order to make it easier) and gotten them away it was almost nine at night. Now Erika laid on her bed while Miho prepared a small meal. Miho know that Erika was almost useless in the kitchen; she had once burned jello, something that a few friends at Kuromorimine never let her forget. Therefor, Erika had determined that it was her job to do laundry and clean, which seemed like a fair trade-off.

Standing up from her bed, Erika walked over to her window and looked out over the city. It was starting to get dark, and the reflection of the lights off of, and around, the harbour was quite pretty, and the ships moving around in the harbour were calming. She opened her window, and as the humid air hit her she immediately closed it again. _So much for that_.

"Erika, dinner is ready." Miho called from the kitchen.

Erika turned away from the view in front of her and went to the kitchen. Miho had prepared some pork cutlets and rice for them, and was already seated at the table. Sitting down across from her, Erika smiled. "What a day that was, huh?

After a quick Itadakimasu, Miho answered.

"It was a lot to take in, but everyone seemed nice, and we get to actually use tanks tomorrow."

"Oh?"

"Did you not read your schedule? It says the next two days are practice matches. I asked Shelby about it and she said that they'll use these matches to get us somewhat familiar with our crewmates and to determine who's not up to speed."

"Innt da innere… sorry." Erika finished her mouthful of food. "Isn't that interesting. What tank are you in anyways?"

"I think it's 2-05."

Erika reached out to the counter behind her and rifled through the papers there. Finding the one she was looking for she placed on the table beside her.

"2-05… So you're with Eva, someone named Sabine Colette, who's the gunner, and no specified loader. Must be one of the try-outs."

"Yeah… What's Eva doing?"

"Driver."

"W-w-w-wait! I'm the commander?"

"M-hmm."

"How about you?"

"1-04. Driver."

"Driver?"

"M-hmm. Remember, I was a good driver in middle school."

"So they weren't kidding when they said that just because it's the Commander draft, doesn't mean you'll be a commander."

"Sounds like it… oh. I'm in the same tank as Danielle."

"Who?"

"The woman from the team meeting. You know the one with…" Erika held her hand out in front of her chest, palms in. "Yeah."

"Oh."

"Anzai is in the command tank, 1-01."

"That's good for her, isn't it?

"I guess so. Apparently Kay is the commander of her tank now. She started as a loader last year, then when her commander got hurt, she filled in. She's now there full time."

"Really?"

"Yeah. That Canadian girl we met at the press conference is the loader."

"What tank is that?"

"1-02."

"I see."

"Shelby's your team leader by the way. 2-01."

"..."

"What?"

"I wanted to know, if it's not… to personal, what is your contract."

"Same as yours. I know because I knew I was drafted. We have the same agent. Apparently they're really big on us for the future."

"Oh."

"I also checked a website called capcrunch. It lists all the contracts in the league by team and value. They're public knowledge."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Did you know that Mari's contract is three million dollars a year?"

"WHAT?"

"Yup. I asked about that too, and was told that a) she's really good, and b) don't be surprised if we make that in four years."

"That's incredible."

"So I was also told to not talk about this stuff around the team. It's improper."

"Makes sense."

"I also saw on the league website that your friend… what's her name… "

"Erwin? The german-uniform-all-the-time one?"

"No, the girl from your tank… Saori! That's it! She signed a contract with San Francisco."

That's nic…. WHAT? How did that happen?"

"She's your friend, Miho. I have no idea."

 _Saori never spoke to me at all over the summer break. No texts, not call… nothing. Why? Shouldn't this be something you tell one of your best friends?_ Miho started to tear up, which made Erika jump.

"What's wrong? What did I say?"

"...she never said anything to me about it. She never talked to me once over the summer about anything. At all." Miho sniffled.

 _And I'm bad at this stuff_ Erika thought, reaching out and taking Miho's hand. _Try calling her? Should I say that?_

"Try calling her? She may have been busy. How often did you try calling her?"

Miho stared across the table at Erika. Then snorted. Again. Then it turned into a laugh. Erika just stared.

"You're right. One second." Miho picked up her phone and through her tears found Saori's number and called. _That's gonna be an expensive call_ was ll Erika thought.

"Hi! How are you?"

"How's your summer?"

"I heard… and you didn't tell me you were thinking about this earlier because…?"

"Really?"

"Your parents are crazy you know."

Miho started crying, making Erika feel uncomfortable.

"You never texted or called and I thought maybe you actually hated us and I had a going away party and you never answered and no one could tell me where you went or why you couldn't be reached and maybe you had DIED and... and... and…"

Erika just stared at Miho, who was speaking faster and faster into her phone, the pitch of her voice rising. Combined with the crying Miho was, as she understood it, a wreck.

"I… I'll message you on the computer then… yes this will be expensive for me too."

Miho hung up and sagged in her seat.

"And?" Erika started carefully.

"Whe went away with her parents to France for a few weeks, then when she got back she immediately was asked to go to the United States. Apparently she didn't take her phone with her. I'll be on the computer with her later to catch up."

"And?"

"She was crying. I was crying. I think even the crying was crying. I don't know."

"So that's good I…. guess."

"..."

"..."

"How's the rice?"

 **WAFF WAFF WAFF**

 **Sorry I'm late on this one, and in general. I'm not overly happy with this chapter but it's kinda the slow one, and I knew that going in. The next chapter is the 1st day of training, which should be exciting. Or slightly less crap. I'm not sure which yet.**


	7. Culture Shock, Pt 1

With an annoyed sigh, Miho lowered herself back into the tank and closed the hatch. Soaked from the waist up, Miho felt rather miserable. She had been directed to hold this chokepoint between two small creeks by Shelby, and for the last hour hadn't seen any other vehicles, friendly or otherwise. Over the radio she heard sporadic reports of engagements but nothing even remotely close to her grid square.

Learning forwards, Miho switched the radio to the frequency for the first team and listened in for a few seconds.

"Target bearing 184, range 300."

"Roger. 1-5 repositioning to square117832 to support."

"Affirmative."

"1-1, this is 1-3. We are taking fire, bearing 244."

"Affirmative. Regroup with 1-5 at 117832 smartly."

"Roger."

Miho clicked back to her team's frequency and waited. _This is exciting._

* * *

Miho and Erika had arrived at the complex the day after their brief orientation at about eight thirty, which left them a few minutes to explore the Den. They had gotten a lift from another member of the team they had not met from the main building and after introducing themselves merely got a nod of the head from the woman. Deciding to not press the matter, the two Japanese women contented themselves to passing the short trip to the Den in silence.

Once they arrived, the took a quick peek through the fence at the compound. There, at least two dozen men and women were swarming over the assembled vehicles to prepare them for the day's training sessions. Miho immediately spotted 2-05 in the line, currently being loaded with rounds from a trolley.

"Earth to Miho. Let's get inside, it's starting to rain." Miho glanced up at the overcast sky and felt a few drops against her face. Knowing that it could pick up at any moment, Miho walked up the steps and into the Den. Once she removed her shoes, she made her way into the lounge and for the first time that day smiled.

Where the day before the lounge had been empty, today it was a hub of activity. The couches in the corner were occupied by her teammates, all of whom were alternatively groaning and cheering at the TV; on that was a video game being played by some of the members of the group. The kitchen was busy, with the smells of toast and omelets wafting in her direction. Miho thought back on her breakfast of cereal and committed to eating her breakfast here the next day. The tables to her right were full, with conversation interjected with laughter kept their occupants gleefully entertained. Making her way through the lounge, a number of women made their way to her to introduce themselves to both her and Erika. Miho know that trying to remember every name being thrown at her was going to be useless at this time, but smiled and made pleasantries all the same _I'll just go on the team's website and memorize them like I did in school_ Miho thought to herself, her smile widening at the memory of having done the same thing when she arrived at Oorai.

Her and Erika eventually made their way to the door out of the lounge and once through made their way to the locker room. Once inside Erika immediately made a beeline for her stall, and sat at her stall, introducing herself to those around her. Miho made her way to the bath section to wash up after her drive in. When she got into the bath area she noticed that she was the only person around.

"Oh no you don't."

Miho looked around, and realized that the voice was coming from further in the bath.

"That's just not right, get out of here."

Miho panicked. _Am I not supposed to be in here? Is there something I wasn't told?_

"You have got to be kidding me! This is ridiculous."

Miho was scared, but quickly took a look further into the bath while slowly walking backwards back into the locker room. She saw a completely naked woman standing in front of a full length mirror caressing her chest and abdomen.

"It should be illegal being this goddam _sexy."_

Miho stopped dead in her tracks. _What is she doing?_ The woman glanced up at Miho through the mirror and turned to face Miho.

"Hi there? Need something?"

"I…"

"I…"

"IGOTTAGODOSOMETHING." Miho blurted and darted out of the bath. All Miho could hear behind her was a hearty laugh, and then "Goddam, I look good." Miho wasn't paying attention and bumped into someone almost knocking them over. Glancing up, she noticed that she had bumped into Danielle.

"What's goin' on? You look like you've just seen something strange."

Miho looked behind her into the bath, and Danielle looked into the bath as well. A quite but clear "Goddam" was all that could be heard.

"Oh. That. She does that every morning. One second."

Danielle brushed past Miho and walked into the bath, and after a few moments Miho heard a sharp slap, followed by incomprehensible shouting and laughter. A few moments later Danielle walked back out followed by the woman from earlier, now wrapped in a towel. Both were smiling and Miho noticed that the woman was rubbing the left side of her butt. The woman quickly apologized for her earlier display and walked over to her stall. With a shake of her head Danielle turned back to Miho.

"I suppose when you have a body like that at 32 after a few kids, you'd want to admire it, too."

Miho just stood there blankly.

"That's Marianne. She's the only person who's been here longer than me. She's been here since she was drafted. Good driver, better radio operator. Also somewhat obsessed with her body."

"She has children?"

"Three, to be exact. You really can't tell, either. She's also one of the nicest people you'd ever meet… just a bit strange."

Miho wanted to ask more, but at that moment Mari walked into the room, and all of the other conversation died off.

"OK. Everyone has 20 minutes to get ready and be in the compound. If you haven't been assigned a vehicle yet, we'll sort at out once we're out there." Mari then proceeded to her stall and started changing.

"You heard the boss," Danielle quipped, "Let's get to work."

* * *

"2-5, this is 2-1, come in."

Miho started, and reached for her mic controls.

"This is 2-5."

"Have you had any contact?"

"Negative."

"Roger." Shelby's voice, even though the radio, sounded much harder and more focused than in normal conversation. "Move to 2-3's position. Once linked up proceed to 177474 and clear the vill…"

 **KLANG! KLANG KLANG KLANG!**

The impacts against the tank drowned out everything else. Worse for Miho is that they were coming from the armor plating over her right shoulder. The crew instantly reacted; Eva fired the engine up, and the woman to Mio's left immediately readied, eyes trained on the round indicator above her head. Sabine, directly to her front, immediately started checking her viewports. Miho grabbed her main viewport and looked to her 2'clock. All the while, the assault on her tank continued. Miho was quite glad that her helmet had hearing protection built into it; she was sure that without it, she would be going deaf after this.

"Muzzle flashes from the hill, 2'oclock." Sabine called through the crew radio. Miho trained her viewport to the location called out; there she could see the stub nose of a 20mm cannon spitting fire.

"Engage at will." Miho called, and selected HE on her control panel. To her left, the loader turned to the stowage and pulled a round out and slammed into the breach. A few moments later an indicator lit up on her panel: READY.

 _This sure beats calling out across the tank_ Miho thought to herself. Luckily that morning, the team had spent a few hours familiarizing themselves with their new charges, and while there was more to these tanks, the operation was much more simple.

"Target identified, fire 1." Sabine stated, and a moment later fired. Mihp felt the familiar _whump_ against her body in the chair, and heard the characteristic explosion and decompression of the stabilization array, and the rattle of the spent casing. Through her viewport she briefly saw the projectile fly out of the barrel, and then the target was silent, white flag popped out from the turret roof. Already disconcerted with the target that was now eliminated, Miho reached for her radio while panning about with her viewport.

"2-5. Target encountered and knocked out. Will relocate as requested."

"Roger 2-5. Was that a L1 or a Luchs?"

"Luchs."

"Affirmative. Please relocate as previously requested."

"Roger."

With the rest of her crew keeping an eye on their surroundings, Miho popped her hatch and turned out. Miho looked at her turret and found that while there was some minor damage to the armour, it wasn't sufficient to cause concern. Glancing up at the eliminated AFV, she saw that it's crew was turned out and looking skywards. Already Miho could hear the rhythmical beating of a helicopter. Miho have a wave and turned back into the tank, and one of the other crew members waved back; they were all fine.

"Good shooting." Miho stated over the crew radio. "Ava, bring us around to… 133 and follow that road to the crossroad. We'll be linking up with 2-3 and clearing the village."

"Right."

Miho felt her driver engage the clutch and the engine of the tank roared as they backed up out of their position. As the tank moved, Miho marked the location of her crew's first KO on her map with a red grease pen, then pulled a blue one out of her pocket and marked their new destination with the current time. _1333,_ Miho thought, _took almost two hours to do anything but sit and wait._

* * *

After changing into her uniform, Miho made her way into the Strategy room and, seeing an empty seat beside Erika, sat down. She had barely sat down when Mari stepped into the room.

"Remember, sit with your crews." Miho looked around and say Eva on the opposite side of the room deep in conversation with two others. Miho got up and, with a nod to Erika, moved towards her new crew.

"So this is the wonder child?" asked the young woman sitting beside Eva. "She's a cute one alright."

Miho started, then introduced herself to the other two ladies.

"I am Sabine Colette, your gunner." Miho looked at the woman who had labelled her as the 'wonder child'. The woman was tall, thin, and had long brown hair. Her grey-blue eyes were exceptional expressive, and Miho detected a lot of mischievousness in them. "I'm from France. You'll soon learn to fear my name, both in and out of battle." Which caused Eva and the other woman to laugh.

"Mostly because you're crazy!" the other woman exclaimed, causing another round of laughter. "Sorry about that, I'm Elodie Colette, her sister. Also from France." Where Sabine was tall with long brown hair, Elodie was short, just about the same size as Eva, with a bright green bob cut. She also had bright blue eyes, which Miho almost pointed out clashed with her green hair.

"So..." Miho started.

"Yes, yes," Elodie waived her hand dismissively, "TBD and all that. I'm new to this team this year. I was what you'd call a free agent. I wanted to play tanks with my little sister again." She had walked behind Sabine and flung her arms around the taller woman's shoulders at the statement, which elicited a small laugh and a "You are _so_ strange." from the tall brunette.

"Oh. Welcome, then."

At this point Miyuki and a small number of other women walked into the room and made their way to the small stage at the front. One of the women picked up a remote which, after a few button presses turned on a projector and also dimmed the lights.

"Welcome ladies. I know that most of you haven't had a chance to review the strategies yet, and that's fine. The next two days are an exercise in team chemistry: who works with who and who doesn't. This will help us determine who to put into the missing gaps. Some of you will be leaving after these two days, so make sure you do your best."

The projector's image shifted, and a map of a large area of land was displayed on the screen at the front. In the middle was what appeared to be a small town surrounded by fields, and all around that a forest. To the north was a group of small lakes and a small rocky area. To the east was the river and swamp. The west and south were forest with random roads and passages. In the far east and west were two colored circles, red and blue respectfully.

"So we are going for full elimination. Red team will be M3 and M4, along with L5. Blue will be M1 and M2, with L6 in support. So each team will be WTL compliant, 15 Tanks and 5 AFV. It will be up to the Bluefor/Redfor commanders to determine your strategy. Mari, you're Bluefor. Yukine, you're Redfor." Miho saw Mari and a Japanese woman nod. "Operation will begin at 1200. You'll have a few hours to familiarize yourselves with the maps and your teams. Questions?"

No one raised their hands, so Miyuki nodded. "Very well, dismissed."

* * *

"2-5 this is 2-3, we are coming up beside you from the path to your right in about 1 minute."

"Roger 2-3." Miho answered. "I thought we were meeting up at 177474."

"Affirm, we were south-southeast of your location. If not for your engagement, we would have beat you to the rendezvous."

With a smile, Miho signed off. While they were tanking at a much higher level than she had in high school, she found that the overall feel was more or less the same. No over serious radio chatter or calling; just good tankers making decisions. To be fair, though, this was merely a skirmish and therefor there was no structure or plan.

Miho looked out of the right of her viewport and saw that, true to their word, 2-3 was to their right on a separate path. Miho warned Eva, who merely sped up. When asked, the explanation given was "We're faster, they can bring up the rear." After a short radio discussion, 2-3 capitulated (along with some bribery and blackmail) and was now behind Miho. Miho turned out into the rain and waved to the tank behind her, and it's commander did the same. Just as Miho was about to turn back in a shell glanced off 2-3's turret side and flew off into the forest, snapping branches as it went. For her part, 2-3's commander summarily dropped back into her tank, turret already turning to its left.

"Incoming fire!" Miho shouted into her headset, dropping into her seat. "Eva, get us into the forest on the right, then try to get our front out to the left!" Eva never vocally answered, and instead veered the tank off into the woods as ordered, 2-3 following suit.

"Sabine, turret to bearing 290, shots originating from that bearing."

Miho was already moving on the her viewports, using the already rotating turret to get her eyes to the appropriate direction. A tree to the left of her vision exploded in a cloud of fire and chips, the victim of a tank shell.

"2-5, this is 2-3. There's a drop up ahead that's about 10 feet deep. Let's get into that and use it as a defilade."

"2-3, agreed. Back down?"

"Affirmative. You're first."

"Roger."

Miho quickly checked her map and found the position they were headed to: a wide ditch dug for water runoff. Miho explained the plan to her crew, and for a few moments had no other roles than to keep watch for muzzle flashes.

"Miho, to your 11'oclock. The ditch."

"Roger. Eva, take us down."

Miho reached up as Eva brought the tank to a halt, then spun it around. This was the riskiest part of the plan: both tanks were stationary, and had no vision on their pursuer. As Sabine turned the turret to the side, Miho and her crew braced themselves.

"Eva, take it slowly."

"No shit."

Miho held her breath. She could feel the angle of the tank changing, and she was being forced into her right shoulder, which was resting against the turret wall. For a few moment, Miho realised, their under armour was completely exposed. As they made their way down the decline backwards, Miho felt the tank starting to slip in the mud and start to slide. Letting her held breath out, she felt the impact of reaching the bottom of the decline, and flatten out, turret already rotating to cover the top of the hill for 203 which, as Miho could see, was making it's way down as well. Miho glanced at her control panel and selected APDS, and after a few seconds READY was illuminated.

2-3 was about ½ of the way down the slope when their unknown assailant appeared on the ridge.

"Target at 10'oclock 100 meters!" Miho called out, and she felt the turret start to rotate. _Faster! Faster! C'mon!_ Miho screamed internally, her left hand twitching nervously.

 **CRACK!** The enemy tank fired; shrouded in propellant exhaust, Miho couldn't follow the shot, the tank's round covered the 70 meters in less time than a blink. 2-3, still making it's way down the hill rocked with the impact, but it's flag didn't pop. The tank, with it's crew stunned, slid the rest of the way to the bottom of the hill, and coming to rest on flat ground. Miho felt, rather than heard, her own tank fire. She saw a shower of sparks and the round careened off into the air, a long scar now running from the turret face up to the start of the roof; they had just glanced it. Her hand immediately shot out to select APFSDS, hopefully she was in time to change the load. Looking back at the target, it was travelling along the top of the hill; it would take some time for the cannon's angle to reset from loading at this angle.

"Eva, get us to the bottom of the hill under their depression."

"Right."

The engine roared; Miho was forced back in her seat. Looking around in her cupola, she noted that no other targets appeared active in the area; it was just them. Bringing her main viewport back around, Miho immediately called out "Engage! Target is moving down into the ditch!" Miho saw the other tank rotating it's turret to the left while it's driver turned the tank down the slope.

"This is 2-3, our rack's hatch is damaged. We're working on getting it open. We've also lost our driver, she's a bit woozy."

Miho's crew, with the advantage of stable ground, fired again. The shell flew and impacted just behind the enemy tank, throwing a shower of mud up behind it. Miho unwittingly flinched as the enemy fired back; the angle of the tank, along with the slope caused the shell to pass overhead, barely missing the turret roof.

 _They'll be down the hill in a few seconds. If I was them I would use 2-3 as cover and go hull down. We are starting to lose our advantage. We could attempt to do the same but they are above us, and can now shoot down._

"They're gonna ram 2-3!" Sabine called out. Miho looked out through the viewport. As Miho watched, the enemy tank threw itself into full reverse, throwing up a storm of mud in front of it in the process. Unable to stop its descent, the tank rammed into the side of 2-3 at almost full speed, causing the tank to rock up onto it's track and slam back down; the force of the impact causing the right track to break; the front of the enemy tank destroyed the left road wheels causing it's flag to pop. The enemy tank also took significant damage to its own tracks; and combined with the computer sensor registering impact, it's flag popped as well.

Knowing that the intra-team radio is disabled once a tank is eliminated, Miho had Eva drive over to the tanks to see if they were OK. Miho had just gotten turned out when the commanders of both 2-3 and the enemy tank, labelled as 3-4 turned out as well.

"You fucking bitch," 2-3's commander screamed, as the rest of the crews present started turning out, "Are you blind?"

"What's your problem?" The other command screamed back, looking just as pissed at the situation. "Do you see the rain? We lost traction, shit happens."

"Bullshit. You knew that would happen."

"Well, ramming isn't against the rules!"

Miho looked on in disbelief as both commanders pulled themselves out of their tanks and, standing on their respective tanks, shout back and forth at each other. Miho heard the roar of an engine beside her and with a quick glance to her right saw that 1-1 had pulled up to the scene.

Miho flinched _This won't be good._ Mari was already getting herself out of her tank, and Miho was starting to do the same when a bunch of shouting from the two damaged tanks brought her attention back to her front: the two commanders, no longer content with insulting each other, had started exchanging blows, the crews each trying to pull their respective commander out of the confrontation.

"Fuck you!" Miho heard 3-4's commander shout while throwing a haymaker at the other, which grazed her cheek. For her trouble, 3-4's commander got a solid open handed slap across the face, drawing blood from her nose.

"What are you doing?" Mari jumped out of her tank and ran up to the fight, Miho following up quickly behind her. Mari reached the fight and chopped her right arm between the two fighting women, breaking their one-handed holds an allowing the crews to drag them apart. "Get back in your tanks now." Mari's voice was a snarl.

"She started it!" the commander of 3-4 shouted while gesturing at 2-3's crew with her free hand; her other hand was holding some kleenex up to her bleeding nose.

"I don't care who started it, I'm fucking finishing it. Get. Back. In. Your. Tank." Mari answered, spitting out the last few words of her order with fury. Miho took a look at Mari and was frightened to see that the normally calm and aloof looking Mari was livid; her face was red and she was grinding her teeth, her fists clenched.

After the crews had been separated, Mari returned to her tank and rapped on the driver's hatch, and after a few seconds, was handed a handset for the radio. Judging by the look on the captain's face, she knew what the discussion was about. Miho used this as a chance to check on each crew. Outside of a few scrapes and bruises, there were no injuries caused by the collision. When checking on the commanders of the two tanks, 3-4 was still livid, and asked Miho to 'Fuck off, please', while 2-3's was more upset with her reaction to the accident than angry.

Miho left the women of the two tanks and walked back to her own tank. Besides being wet, tired, and hungry, Miho was now also upset. She had never seen two team members fight before; to her it made no sense. As she neared her tank, Eva leaned over and patted Miho on the shoulder. Miho looked up and saw the older woman looking at her, the look on her face all but saying _We'll talk about this when we get back._ Miho just nodded, seeing the message hidden in the look.

"Nishizumi. We'll head back to the compound." Mari had appeared behind Miho so quietly that je jumped. Miho recovered and faced her team captain.

"Am I in trouble as well?"

"What do you mean, trouble? We're the only two tanks left of the session. We win" Mari smiled, something Miho hadn't seen before. "We'll get cleaned up, then we'll debrief what happened here." As Mari spoke, Miho heard both the beating of a helicopter and the rumble of heavy vehicles approaching, and a few seconds later a helicopter set down a few meters from them; Mari ran over to it and had a few words with the crew chief, then ran to the two crashed tanks, the crews of which were separated within the chopper, which then lifted off and headed towards the compound. A few minutes after that, a couple of heavy armour transporters drove down the ditch and the recovery crews started their work.

"Let's head out!" Mari called to the two active tanks. Climbing up to her hatch, Mari took a look around then called over to Miho "I wish you didn't have to see that earlier." and before Maho could answer, Mari dropped into her hatch and with a roar, her tank moved up the ditch towards the compound. Still upset, and now more confused, Miho did the same

* * *

 **So I brought up something here that makes no sense to anyone who has never played sport at a highly competitive level: teammates who fight.**

 **I don't mean who yell at each other, I mean literally fist-flying fighting. It happens. A lot.**

 **Emotions can get the best of you. Sometimes it's respect. If you're in practice, and the team's not doing so good and someone's dogging it (not working hard enough) he has no respect. So someone may thump him a good one.**

 **Some people say "How's that being a good teammate?" Easy - it shows you care. I know for a fact, that 2 teammates who fight will go to war for each other if needed. Sometimes those guys are actually best friends. These are guys who spend their lives playing sports are dedicated and want to win.**

 **Sometimes a guy makes a dangerous play in practice and injures a good teammate… you have to tighten that behavior up and say "Don't be doing that. He's one of us" I can tell you from being on both sides of it, I have no problem with it,**

 **If you want some proof, go to youtube and look up _TSN - Top 10 Teammate Fights_ or _NHL Teammate Fights_ I think it's definitely more common in hockey and baseball, but happens in all sports.**


	8. Culture Shock, Pt 2

With a soft _thump_ Miho landed on the floor of the tank shed and stumbled into the tank's side. Between being wet and cold, she was also tired and slightly unsettled. The fight between the two commanders a short while ago, along with Mari's seeming nonchalance towards the fight itself, bothered her. Miho reached up and unclasped her helmet, placing it on the deck of her tank.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much." Miho looked up and to the right and saw Sabine sitting on the edge of the tank while rocking back and forwards, her legs kicking back and forward as they dangled over the tank's edge.

"... I'm not sure…" Miho started quietly.

"Puh-LEEZ." The other woman pushed herself off the tank and walked over to Miho and leaned against the tank beside her. "You haven't said a word since that fight. You look lost and _sooooo_ confused." Miho flicked her eyes over the older woman's shoulders and saw Eva and Elodie leaning against the tank further along, absently pulling at random leaves and twigs as they looked off into the distance; Miho thought she saw their eyes flit in her direction a few times. "Shit… well. Fights can happen. It's not very often, but it happens. Uhh… you… y'won't understand it _yet_ , but it… it'll make sense once you've been around for a while."

"I don't see how it will make sense. Ever.." Miho responded rather lamely.

A sigh.

"Don't worry about it. Let's go get cleaned up… a shower may do some good here. A shower and a coffee." Sabine accented her statement by putting her arm around Miho and, with a tilt of the head, lead the Miho, and the rest of the team, towards the Den. As they crossed the compound, Miho found herself becoming more relaxed under the arm of her crewmember, and smiled.

"Miho." The group stopped just short of the door, and Miho turned her head towards the woman who had called out to her.

Mari.

"I see you've made it back in one piece. Why don't you go get showered. Jessica wants to meet with you at 4. That gives you about an hour. Don't be late." And with a nod to the rest of the crew, Mari headed inside.

"You know," Sabine said as the group made their way into the Den, "I've known GMari for years. She still confuses me." She then stopped taking off her boots and nodded her head a few times. "Doesn't stop the fact that she's got a nice ass, though." And with a little smile and wave walked off into the locker room, leaving Miho staring in her wake.

 _This day keeps getting stranger._

* * *

Miho slipped her foot into the hot tub and almost moaned. The water was at the perfect temperature to wash away a day's worth of troubles and while she couldn't quite place the scent of the oil in the water, it helped her to relax even more. As she got further into the water, Miho closed her eyes. While the shower had felt good, this felt _exquisite._

"It's pretty good isn't it?" Miho opened her eyes and tilted her head back and found herself staring straight up at the face of Eva.

"I can't describe it…" Miho trailed off as Eva slipped into the hot tub beside her and rested her head against the rim of the tub, sighing as she did so. The two women were joined by the French sisters mere moments later, both of whom made more show of getting into the tub.

"Heaven, maybe?"

Miho nodded "Heaven!"

By the time that she had made her way to the the locker room, most of the other women had moved on to the lounge. The sounds of excited discussion had filtered down the hallway towards her through the door to the lounge, and Miho wanted to join in. But the thought of a hot shower interested he much more. Once she got to her stall, she stripped out of her uniform and looked around. She realized that she didn't know where to put it _Do I was this myself?_ Miho thought, but noted that another woman had just removed her uniform and tossed it into a large hamper in the middle of the floor. Miho quickly followed suit, but still had to ask about her underwear, which was explained as "You need to wash that stuff yourself. Could you imagine trying to read tags or figure out who's was who's based on size? Ha!" by Elodie. This explained to Miho why she had also been provided a gym-styled bad with multiple sets of t-shirts, sports bras, and boyshorts. While she didn't mind the sports bras as much, the boyshorts had been a pleasantly comfortable surprise. Although, Miho had noted in passing, some women had forgone the bras and simply worn the shirt under the uniform.

Having stuffed her used underwear into her bag, Miho grabbed the towel that a room attendant had left in her stall and made her way to the showers. On the way she had been greeted by a number of her teammates in various states of dress including Marianne who, to Miho's embarrassment and horror, had cat-called Miho and made a number of women present to laugh at the reaction it got.

Making her way into the showers themselves, Miho saw that each showerhead had a dispenser below for bodywash and shampoo. Quickly glancing around, she noted that no-one had brought their own to use.

 _Every little thing I can pick up,_ Miho thought to herself, _will help me get used to this lifestyle sooner than later._

After her shower (Miho wanted to spend a bit more time under the fantastic feeling water) Eva had insisted that she and the rest of the crew relax for a bit in the currently empty hot tub and discuss the day's events.

"Oh, Miho! How was your first battle?" Miho turned and saw Erika standing a few feet from the tub, looking longingly at the water within. Turning to her teammates, she saw Eva nod almost imperceivably.

"It was… interesting. Care to join us?" Miho answered. Erika wasted no time in climbing into the tub. There were a few minutes of comfortable silence before Elodie spoke up.

"So Miho… you've never seen teammates fight before, have you?" Erika looked over at the woman, confused.

"What happened with you guys?" Erika asked.

"Oh, some other crews got into a fight over something or other. Nothing major"

"But," Miho questioned, "why would you want to fight a teammate to begin with?"

Sabine sat up in the hot tub and leaned back, using her arms as supports against the surround of the tub. Miho was enthralled at the sight of the woman's glistening body for a few seconds before looking at her face.

"Have you ever been so into in something that someone else's faults or failures irritated or aggravated you?"

Miho thought about this. Her first few battles with Chi-Ha-Tan had been trying and more than once she was exasperated beyond words.

"I guess so."

"Right. So now add in ego. While we may all seem nice and relaxed and easygoing, we want to win. We are the best in the world. Remember that. We are the best, even if we don't recognize it ourselves. There's a certain ego to it." Sabine slid back into the tub and looked over at Miho again.

"So maybe that doesn't mean anything to you, but to us it means something, even if we don't overly like it."

As Miho mulled this over, it was Erika who spoke up first.

"So… they fought because Sensha-Do.. sorry, Tankery, means that much to them?"

"Basically."

Miho leaned back against the tub and closed her eyes. While she still didn't completely understand it, the explanation that Erik a formulated made sense, in a strange logic path. _Sabine is right,_ Miho thought, _I just don't know enough yet._

Another silence descended on the women in the hot tub until it was disrupted, for Miho anyways, by a large splash of water across her head. Sputtering, Miho used her hand to clear her eyes, intent on determining why someone would do something like that.

"You look like a drowned rat." Eva called out. "But I wanted to remind you that you have a meeting in 10 minutes."

Miho sighed. All good things must come to an end. Pulling herself, very reluctantly, out of the hot tub and wrapping herself with a towel, Miho padded over to her stall in the locker room to get dried off and dressed. There wasn't another soul around, and Miho realized that the only ones present were herself and her friends in the hot tub. The sounds coming from the lounge were much quieter.

 _Friends._ Miho thought as she dried herself off. _I wonder if they consider me a friend as well?_

* * *

A knock at the door signalled that the last person requested at the meeting had arrived. Mari walked over and opened the door. As expected, there stood Miho, slightly hunched in on herself; Mari deduced the younger woman was nervous... eight years ago, she would have been as well.

"Ah, Miho. Please come in, have a seat." Jessica called out. Mari moved to the side to let the younger woman pass, then closed the door and resumed her seat at the table. At the head of the table sat Jessica, the team's manager. On her left sat Miho and the woman in charge of 2-3 staring straight down at the table. On her right sat Mari and the commander of 3-4, who had her eyes closed in thought, a large bruise across her nose. The other end of the table was occupied by the coach, Miyuki.

"Good. So you all know why we're here. Can you, Miho, explain what happened today? I need to know how _you_ saw this."

As Miho started explaining, Mari tuned her out.

 _I suppose this is the absolute worst way to start out as captain. Teammates fighting on my first day. I didn't expect this at all. Perhaps I've been too distant? Nonsense… the last captain was the same. But, then again, I'm not her. Maybe I should call a meeting already? Maybe not, it's been one day… I should give them some time to pull together. Maybe a team bonding party? Sounds pleasant, but I haven't planned a party since secondary. Maybe I need to speak with Galiena about one. She's pretty good at figuring these things… wait. Party later, I need to speak to Miho later about that thing..._

"Thank you Miho. Mari, anything to add?"

"Yes. While both of them did fight, they did follow orders as expected. Both women did apologize once back in the compound and appear to have tried to move on at this point. Both crews also confirmed that there was some remorse. My opinion is that we can learn from this and move on as a team."

Jessica sat back in her chair and stared up at the ceiling in contemplation. As she twirled her pen between her fingers, she looked back down at the two women being discussed. After looking back and forth between them a few times, Jessica tossed the pen onto her notebook and leaned into the table, folding her hands together.

"Miyuki. I trust your judgment one hundred percent. What do you suggest?"

The older woman furrowed her brow for a few moments, then spoke.

"Sometimes, a team needs some adversity to become stronger. While external influence is a great motivator, sometimes you need to look internally. If there's no competition within, how can we have competition without? Mari is right; we can use this. You see this as two women being emotionally charged of perceived wrongdoing. Myself, I see two women who want to win so bad that they'll drive each other, even fight each other, to get there. Obviously, too much of this is more destructive than losing. My recommendation is to put them into the same tank; they can swim together or sink together."

The two women looked up and stared at each other; everyone else looked between them.

"Well… that's an interesting thought, and well reasoned." Jessica started. "We'll go with it. There will be a report for each of you to sign tomorrow, but we'll adjust the teams for tomorrow's practice match. Can you both live with this?"

The two women both averted their eyes from each other, both obviously thinking about the plan. Eventually, both agreed to the arrangement and shook hands.

"Good. Miho, Mari: thank you for your time. You may all leave now. Miyuki, a word?"

Mari stood up and walked over to the door and held it open for the other women to leave, and with a curt nod behind her, closed it. Looking both ways in the hallway, she spotted Miho a few feet away.

 _Looks like she's lost._ Mari thought to herself. _Maybe this is a good chance to get to know her._

"Are you lost, Miho?"

Miho turned around, red in the face from embarrassment "Yes."

Mari smiled and for Miho to walk with her.

"You know… again I'm sorry you had to see that."

"Th.. that's OK." Miho stuttered out.

Mari stopped walking and stared at Miho, who took a few more steps and stopped as well, looking more embarrassed before.

"Look… I'm not very good with meeting people… so please, don't be so formal. I'm not your coach, I'm a teammate." Mari explained. _I've always been terrible with words…_

"But you're the captain…."

"Do you know the role of the captain?"

"To lead us?"

"Yes, in a way. But there's more too it. A lot more. I'm still trying to figure it out."

"What do you mean." Miho was genuinely interested in Mari's last statement. The normally quiet and taciturn woman was now standing in front of her looking extremely nervous.

"I was made captain about a week before we went to talk to you in Japan. I asked why… and apparently it was to help me relate to my team. I've always been good with strategies and tanks, but with people, I lack a lot." Mari started walking again. "I was always the strategist, but could never speak to people about it. I think Jessica wants me to change."

"..." Miho said nothing as Mari lead her into a parking garage and to a small green hatchback car.

"So, I see a lot myself in you. Quiet, caring… but you can express yourself easily, I can't." Mari pulled a keychain out of her pocket and unlocked the car with a beep of the horn. "So I want you to help me. I need an assistant. Someone who can communicate better than me. You need someone to show you how the league works. Can you do this?"

Miho paused. She'd been here the grand total of four days and had already seen teammates fight, strange activities in the shower, and other things that could not be considered normal. Then she remembered something that was told to her two days ago _Give it your all and move on from how you used to think about it; you'll have way more fun with it._

"I think so, yes."

For the second time in the last few minutes, Mari smiled.

"Good. Let me give you a drive home."

"What about Erika? She'll need a drive..."

"Have you checked your phone?"

Miho pulled her phone out of her pocket and opened it. There were a number of unread messages:

Unknown: It's anzai sora is going to drive everyone home

Unknown: ur in a meeting ic. gl with that

Eva: GL with ur meeting

Erika: Im going home with Anzai.

"Oh. Thank you for the drive then."

As the car pulled out of the garage, Miho realized that, once again, life is strange.

* * *

 **Oh, the hue manatee! Fights, nekkid ladies, and waffwaff.**

 **I will state this before someone asks: Yes, I checked with some athlete women I'm friends with. They prefer boyshorts to everything else. They get the under armour style ones. You know, moisture wicking and stuff. As one put it 'Less bunching in places that don't want to be bunched". And apparently they are quite comfy.**

 **I tried to best describe fighting teammates again, hopefully it makes more sense. This won't be popping back up as a major plot device for a while, so we can readdress later as needed.**

 **Some of this locker room 'banter' is more based on the anime industry's view on locker rooms, along with my experience with hockey locker rooms. Note that I am a man, so I don't quite know how women actually act in the locker room. Men are quite childish and stupid, especially in hockey. For those of you who've never been in a hockey locker room, it has the feel like a bunch of oversize 12 year olds... no joke.**

 **Speaking of stuff, the NHL season starts in a few days (Go Devils!) and with it the excitement of a new season. I'll be sure to keep this baby rolling.**

 **You should see my notes about this. If FictionPress wasn't as tough with their policy on linking (Which I completely understand and accept as a necessity) I would be linking pictures of the notes/drawings/planograms I have for this story. I'm going to say there's about... 60 pages of notes, ideas, thoughts, as well as a tonne of scale drawings of buildings, rooms, land areas. Maybe I'll throw something onto DeviantArt, I dunno if that's still a thing. Someone let me know where I can throw this stuff up (other than imgur) so that I can show some of my madness and process (both story and paperwork).**


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